Blogging just for the sake of it...

I don't have anything major to say, but I think I ought to keep the weblog up-to-date-ish. Christmas preparations are progressing nicely. Tree's up and lit, presents are bought and wrapped, Christmas Day plans are finalised. Joy, cheer, and good-will imminent.

We went out with Marla's work colleague's last night for her department Christmas meal. Nice meal, fun time. I have one more organised Christmas meal before the 25th - that's the one Fi and Andy organised for the usual gang. It's going to be at Le Beaujolais, which is a nice French restaurant in town. The evening will be like an office Christmas meal but for us and our friends instead of our work colleagues. Should be a great time.

Dramatic ending no. 2...

It's 10:30pm and I've just returned from Griff's house where we watched the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Olympiacos of Greece. To qualify for the final stages of the competition Liverpool needed either a 1-0 win or to win by 2 goals (i.e. 3-1 or 4-2). Well, the first half went badly and at half time Liverpool were losing 0-1. A dramatic effort was needed. Well, they delivered! Goals from Florent Sinema-Pongolle, Neil Mellor and a dramatic third from Steven Gerrard with less than five minutes remaining sealed Liverpool's place in the next round. It was genius. Another one of the greatest sporting moments I can remember.

So in the space of just over a week Liverpool have achieved two incredible last gasp wins that hopefully will help define the rest of the season and the team's future.

Jess of Arabia...

Very silly I know, but I have received at least one request to post the picture of me in my costume for the murder-mystery evening a few weeks ago... so here it is. Not quite El Aurens but not bad for limited resources.

Time flies...

... even when you are not having fun.

I've been meaning to write this review of the weekend since Monday. But everyday events conspired against me.

The Annual Games Championship on Saturday was once again a great success. Ten games on various consoles were played. Mostly X-box but there was a humorous and tiring event on the Playstation 2 using a device called the Eye Toy. Basically it uses a camera placed on top of the TV that superimposes your real-time image onto the screen. This particular game was boxing and left us all more than a bit tired - and I must say suffering from some long term injuries. Anyway, Andy was once again AGC champion - albeit by a much slimmer margin than last year. I finished a dissappointing 5th but half a point behind Jason.

On Sunday, Marla and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner. The food was great - each dish was brought by someone in a pot-luck stylee - with some highlights being Marla's Turkey and stuffing and the stir-fried sprouts brought by Andy and Fi (you can read more about them on Andy's weblog). After dinner we all collapsed, full to the brim, and watched Fletch on video - an old-school choice indeed. Then after Fletch we watched a great little Cary Grant and Ingred Bergman movie called Indisreet, which was remarkably entertaining for everyone.

One other item of note is that Sunday was an exceptional day for my favourite sports teams. The Miami Dolphins won for only the second time all season. Bath Rugby had a nice win. But most importantly Liverpool had an incredible 2-1 win over Arsenal. It was only Arsenal's second defeat in 54 (or is it 56?) games and came thanks to a dramatic 30-yard curling shot from Neil Mellor with about 10 seconds remaining in the game. I managed to video-tape the highlights and it has become one of my favourite sporting moments of all time.

Blogging and ballet...

So there's a blogger out there (actually, in Seattle) called Breakup Babe who has just signed a book contract with Random House on the basis of her weblog. I think that is pretty cool. I guess it is sort of like a real-life Bridget Jones. I don't know if her book will be excerpts from her weblog or whether she will be writing new material - but "good for her" I say. Here's her weblog if you are interested: http://breakupbabe.blogspot.com/.

Went to the ballet last night. Romeo & Juliet. I liked it very much, but very little of my enjoyment has anything to do with it being ballet. I love the story. The music by Prokofiev is great. The stage sets were incredible. And the whole imagery of Romeo & Juliet is captivating. But the actual dancing didn't exactly blow my skirt up, as they say. If I am being honest I must say that ballet does not inspire me. Clearly it is incredibly difficult requiring tremendous strength, skill, and dedication. The problem, for me anyway, is that it should look better than it does - taking into account all that hard work. I'm sure that for ballet afficionados last night's dance performance was spectacular and that the story of Romeo & Juliet is incidental and just a framework about which the ballet can be built, but that is not the case with me. I even found in some instances that the dancing actually detracted from my enjoyment of the evening. I feel like I am revealing my uncouthness, but at least I am not saying ballet is rubbish or that I hate it... because that is not true. And at least I am not saying I liked it when actually I didn't - which would be even worse than trashing it. Nope, ballet is just not my bag, baby.

Latest news...

Items to report:

• The Incredibles was good. It was a bit different from previous Pixar films in that it was more of an action/adventure than a comedy (although there were decent helpings of comedy too). It took me a while to adjust to the style shift but once I did, I was hooked.
  
• Halo 2 has been out on the Xbox for nearly 2 weeks now. It has received a lot of hype and I think that it lives up to most of it. The online play is excellent although it seems that virtually every other player out there is better than me.
  
• Liverpool FC has had a terrible run of form and luck this past week or so. All of the team's top goal-scorers are injured, which is a ridiculous case of bad luck. And the team has lost its last two matches: 0-2 away to Middlesbrough at the weekend and 0-1 away to Monaco in the Champions League last night.
  
• We have a massive weekend coming up. On Saturday Andy is organising and hosting the second Annual Games Championship (AGC) a day-long multi-discipline video gaming competition, which everyone is thoroughly looking forward to.
  
• Then on Sunday we will be having Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Thanksgiving was by far my favourite holiday in America and so we have imported it to England. We can't have Thursday off so Sunday seemed like the natural alternative. We did the same thing last year and it was a great success.
  
• Tomorrow night we are going to see the ballet version of Romeo & Juliet in Bristol. The performance has been getting great reviews in the national press so I have quite high hopes. I'm not really a ballet fan, but this is supposed to be as good as it gets.
  

Beyond the edge of reason...

A group of us went to see "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" on Tuesday night. After the bad things I had said (and blogged) about it I thought I needed to give it a chance to prove me wrong.

Unfortunately, I thought it was poor. Not as funny as the first, no longer an original concept, recycled jokes, contrived set-pieces. I think its biggest crime though was to make Bridget Jones so self-obsessed as to make her un-lovable. Where in the first movie I was rooting for her, here I was not fussed whether she ended up with Mark Darcy or not. Maybe because it was all so predictable that the final outcome was never really in doubt. It had some funny moments and Hugh Grant is definitely good in the bad-boy role but overall it suffered from the fact that it was clear from the beginning that Working Title's only motivation was making money.

There are plans afoot to see "The Incredibles" this weekend. Now that is a movie I am definitely looking forward to.

Someone else's movie review...

What follows is an excerpt from the review of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by film critic Anthony Quinn from today's Independent newspaper. Although I have not seen the movie, the review pretty much confirms everything I had managed to gather from seeing the previews. It also excellently sums up what I generally think about run-of-the-mill movie sequels.

"At some point you have to ask: how little are the fans prepared to settle for? Will it matter to them that there's a public fisticuffs between Darcy and Cleaver virtually identical to the first movie? That Bridget's three "friends", Jude, Shazza and Tom, have absolutely no life during their few dismal scenes? That a breathless cab ride figures at the finale, as it does in almost every movie Richard Curtis touches? I'm afraid it probably won't. Nor will it bother the folk at Working Title once the queues start forming. All the same, this is a pretty tawdry product, and it hasn't even the virtue of novelty any more. Throughout one senses a desperation to please, to seek the easiest laughs and the quickest payoffs."

You can read the entire review here:

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/reviews/story.jsp?story=581862

Murders and 1-0 away wins...

Last Saturday, for Halloween, we participated in a murder mystery evening at Rachael's new flat. Set in the Hollywood scene of the 1950s, we all came dressed in various movie-related garb. I was a matinee idol who was filming an Arabian movie... I was very Lawrence-ish. Andy was Robin Hood, Griff was a badly dressed director, Paul was dressed as a sheriff (for the western he was starring in), Rachael was in Japanese-stylee, Marla, Becky, Fi & Louise were all sort of dolled up, 50s style.

It was a great evening. Louise was the eventual killer. I nearly guessed correctly but changed my accusation at the last second.

Last night we went out for a meal and a movie to celebrate Mum's birthday. We went to Thai Balcony, which is a lovely place. I had Stir Fry Chicken with Chili, Garlic and Basil. Unfortunately, there was no Chili... so a bit of a dissappointment for me. Everyone else loved their food though. We then went to see Finding Neverland at the cinema. It is a very good film. Touching, funny, emotional with great performances - especially from Johnny Depp. It's not really my sort of film... but very good nevertheless.

Also last night, Liverpool beat Deportivo la Coruña 0-1 in the UEFA Champions League. It's a great away win that really helps Liverpool's chances of advancing to the next stage of the competition. The goal was an own-goal by Deportivo, but apparently the Liverpool performance was excellent. Good news indeed.

Welcome to the Layer Cake son...

We went to see Layer Cake last night at the newly opened Odeon eight-screen cinema in Bath. The cinema is great. Nice styling and very well run. Assigned seating in all theatres for all showings too, which was a bit of a novelty. We also had dinner at the King Of Wessex pub next door, which is a Weatherspoons pub, i.e. very modern and very cheap. The pub and the cinema make a great combination.

Layer Cake is a great movie. Promoted as a "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" type film, it is actually somewhat different with an altogether more polished style. There are similarities to the Guy Ritchie films - British urban crime drama with a hard alternative edge and a complex plot line - but this is on a bigger scale and slightly less gritty. It has some fantastic locations and great performances (especially from Daniel Craig, who carries the movie along very well). Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.

Post-weekend report...

We just got back from a brilliant trip to Liverpool. This is a photo I took late in the second half of the match (I've used Photoshop to brighten it considerably because my flash did not reach into the gloom). You might be able to see that Liverpool are winning 2-0, which was the final score.

It was a long journey up to Liverpool, with a lot of traffic jams. It was even touch and go whether we would make it to Anfield in time for kick-off, but once we were there it was great. A good win for the "Reds" with two great goals and then a fab time with Rachael's cousins in the evening and the next morning. Plus a short excursion into Liverpool city centre for a bit of shopping at the LFC shop.

It was a good sporting weekend all round really because Bath rugby won their European Cup match and the Miami Dolphins won their first game of the season. I've also just learned that the Red Sox beat the Cardinals in game one of the World Series. I guess I am actually rooting for the Sox in this series so that is a good result too.

Liverpool vs Charlton...

We are off to Liverpool tomorrow. Match kicks off at 5:15pm. We will be picking up Rachael after her netball game at about 12:00 or 12:30 and driving straight to Anfield. It might be cutting it a bit fine, but hopefully we will get there in time to find a parking space nearby. Last time we went we found a small car park at the Goodisen end of the Anfield Road. Our plan is to park there again, the only difference is that last time we arrived a good 3.5 hours before kick-off whereas this time we will maybe only have 1.5 hours. Fingers crossed. Griff is driving (so fingers crossed about that too!) so might be willing to drive a bit faster than my dad did last time.

Last month's guests...

Finally I post the only picture I took of Maggie (far left) and Sarah (far right) while they were here last month. This was taken with Lacock Abbey in the background.

Movies and football...

The weekend is nearly over. We didn't really do a lot this weekend. Today we were especially lazy. I did play tennis this morning but have had two short naps this afternoon! Last night we were at Rachael's new flat (with Rach, Paul & Griff) for dinner and a pre-Anfield trip discussion. The plan is for us to pick Rach up after her netball match next Saturday and drive straight to Liverpool. We might be cutting it a bit fine, but hopefully we will arrive about an hour and a half before kick-off.

We also watched Bridget Jones's Diary. Using the "Esch system" of movie selection the final choice was between Bridget Jones and the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair (my choice, which lost 3 votes to 2). Bridget Jones's Diary is funny but not great; and Renee Zellweger is not a favourite if mine. But it was entertaining fare nevertheless.

Liverpool won 4-2 away to Fulham yesterday. It was the team's first win away from home this season. They were 2-0 down at half-time, so it was an especially gutsy (although a bit lucky) performance. Hopefully they will keep their good home form going so that we see a good win next Saturday.

Underrated Movie No. 1...

We watched Catch Me If You Can the other night and I have to say that I liked it very much. What I don't understand is why more wasn't made of this film when if was first released? It's directed by Spielberg, which is normally enough to over-enthuse people, plus it stars two of the biggest actors around today (Di Caprio and Hanks). It just wasn't hyped at all and therefore didn't really gain any attention. I think one reason for this is that it is not really a hype-able movie. It's not a blockbuster with massive explosions, it's not an epic and it's not a romantic comedy. It's just a well made, well acted movie with a great screenplay. It did receive a couple of Oscar nominations (for the music and for supporting actor, Christopher Walken), but perhaps deserved more.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it highly.

Anfield, here we come... again...

Well, I finally made it through to the LFC ticket line. Spoke to a lovely Liverpudlian lass and ordered four tickets to the Liverpool vs Charlton game on the 23rd of October. We are in the Main Stand, Row 16, Seats 311-314. It's in the corner apparently, but row 16 sounds nice and close.

Marla, Griff, Rachael and I will be going. We are all quite excited already and we don't even have the tickets yet. The next step is to figure out what to do about accommodation. The match is at 5:15pm and so the drive back would be very late. I think the plan is to stay somewhere overnight. Somewhere cheap.

All I get is a busy signal...

I am trying to call the Liverpool FC credit card ticket line today to get tickets for the game against Charlton on the 23rd of Oct. Nothing but and earful of busy!

We went to see Hero at the cinema last Saturday. I was expecting quite a lot but it was far too stylised for me. Everything seemed contrived. The flying ( a la Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which I loved) was far too much of a feature and the set-piece duels were all too choreographed and self-conscious. It was a movie that was always saying, "Look at me, look at what I can do!" It had some great moments but they were sometimes lost in the movie's effort to make every scene an important one. Very beautiful with some good martial arts, but in the end, too full of itself.

On a completely different level, we watched Starsky & Hutch last night on DVD. I liked it.

My Top Ten...

A few years ago I started a website for people to submit their top-ten movies. I think it is time to try to resurrect that project. The website still exists: http://www.pagerealm.com/sunface/. And to get you started, here's my own top-ten:

1. The Bridge on the River Kwai
2. Casablanca
3. LA Confidential
4. The Usual Suspects
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. The Godfather, Part II
7. Unforgiven
8. Lawrence of Arabia
9. Three Kings
10. North by Northwest

Life of Pi...

I finished Life of Pi last night. Great book, but as I suspected there was something "big" at the end and I'm not happy about it. I need to speak to Chris Esch.

Weekend guests...

We've just spent a great weekend hosting Maggie and Sarah from the US. Maggie was a work colleague of Marla's when we still lived in KC, she and her friend Sarah were on a European vacation. They had spent over a week in eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic & Hungary) before coming to see us for the weekend.

On Saturday we went into Bath and did some tourist stuff (Roman Baths, Abbey, etc) as well as having lunch at Jamuna, which was excellent as usual. Then played Balderdash in the evening - Griff joined us for that. On Sunday, we went to Lacock and Lacock Abbey (Griff came again) and had lunch in a traditional olde English pub. Then on Sunday evening we all went for a drink with Andy and Fi, which was an excellent laugh.

Maggie and Sarah left yesterday morning for a day in London before flying back to the US today.

In other news, Marla has her UK driving test this weekend. It should go well, but you never know with these things, so fingers crossed!

Photos from the trip...

Here are links to four Ofoto photo albums with pictures from our trip to the USA (about 70-80 photos in each):

Album 1 :: Day 1 - Travel Day; Day 2 - Sedona; Day 3 - Tuzigoot National Monument & Jerome; Day 4 - Walnut Canyon National Monument

Album 2 :: Day 5 - Sedona (Cathedral Rock creek walk & Schnebly Hill sunset); Day 6 - Slide Rock State Park; Day 7 - Montezuma's Castle & Montezuma's Well National Monuments; Day 8 - Hubble Trading Post & Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Album 3 :: Day 9 - Monument Valley; Day 10 - Grand Canyon National Park; Day 11 - AZ to CA drive; Day 12 - Sequoia National Park

Album 4 :: Day 13 - CA Route 1 (coastal road); Day 14 - San Francisco

Blogs and books and golf...

I just had a clicking session of the Next Blog >> link that appears at the top of all Blogger blogs (including mine). I am amazed at how few weblogs there are out there written by normal people. Most of them were either complete nonesense or by people who seem to be a few slices short of a loaf. It was actually refreshing to come across a weblog by someone normal. Weird. I wonder if it is a symptom of the Internet age. People are more willing to express their weird foibles over the Internet than they are in public.

I am reading The Life of Pi by Yann Martel at the moment. It was highly recommended to me by Chris Esch, who's opinion I respect more than almost anyone else. I am nearly finished with it and I can't tell whether it is an excellent book or just a highly enjoyable one. I like it very much and am reading it faster than I have perhaps read any book before, but I'm not sure it is offering me anything. I am certainly not feeling particularly challenged by it but perhaps that is because it is so easy to read. I gather from where the book is going that there is something large going to happen at the end, which might help me make up my mind. In any case, it is a jolly good read and I recommend it so far.

Next on my "to read" list is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything (or is it A Short History of Nearly Everything?). Which, given my reading speed will take me nicely into 2005. Anyone got any suggestions for what I should read after that?

One more thing. Europe won the Ryder Cup on Sunday; and won it convincingly! The Ryder Cup is one of my favourite sporting events and I was annoyed that I did not get to watch much of it (other than highlights on BBC). But what a great performance by the European team. Every time the Ryder Cup is held the European team is the underdog, but I think it is now seven times out of the last ten that the European team has won or retained it. From what I read in the papers, there is a consensus that Europeans are generally better at the whole "team" thing that the USA. Whilst the Americans were preparing on their own as individuals, the Europeans spent the three days before the event together practising as a team. I am currently germinating a little theory that Americans are generally not all that good at team-sports. Before anyone has a go at me for saying that, let me just repeat that it is a very little theory in the early stages of life...

Back in Jolly ol' England...

We are back from our great trip to Arizona and California. In fact we arrived back on Friday but have been busy and tired since then. We did so many things over the two weeks - as listed on a previous weblog post - including Tuzigoot, Montezuma's Castle, Walnut Canyon, and Canyon de Chelly National Monuments; Grand Canyon and Sequoia National Parks; plus Monument Valley, California Route 1 (coastal highway) and downtown San Francisco. The photo above is from an evening we spent overlooking Sedona from a rocky hill (known as Schnebly Hill)... it was a beautiful sunset!

My personal highlights from the trip include Monument Valley, which was far better than I remember it, and San Francisco, which is almost the perfect city with a waterside area, great landmarks and interesting sights.

I will soon post links to Ofoto albums of many of the photos I took on the trip. Between the three of us (my dad, Joe and me) we took almost 2000 digital photographs. But don't worry, I'll only post a fraction of them.

Final preparations...

We leave for Arizona tomorrow morning at 3:40am. Our flight is not until 7:55, but we will be taking the National Express bus from Bath to Heathrow. Our flight lands in Chicago where we have a 2-hour layover before our onward flight to Phoenix. Hopefully Marla's parents will be able to meet us at O'Hare to say hello and see us for the first time since last Christmas.

I am taking our laptop computer on the trip and hopefully will be able to have Internet access so that I can post on the weblog occasionally. Maybe even upload some photos. If not, I'll have to do it all when we get back. So, until next time... bye.

The Olympics are over :(

After virtually 24-hour coverage of The Games on the BBC it is quite a let down not to be able to watch some Olympic action today. I thought overall the games were very good. There were some excellent events and some great results for British athletes. In terms of total medals, it was a better games than Sydney 2000 for GBR. I thought there was some terrible officiating and then of course the ridiculous moment in the marathon when the leader was forced off the road by that maniac Irish priest (the same guy than ran on to the track at the 2003 British GP). I was also very annoyed that many of the events were so poorly attended by the Greek public. You'd think that they'd appreciate having the games a little more than they appeared to. Anyway, The Games are over now, back to normal life.

Actually, back to normal life for three days because on Thursday we are off to Arizona. I must start packing today. It's a bank holiday today so I have the day off and therefore a bit of time to do it.

We did go to see The Bourne Supremacy on Wednesday. Quite an action-packed and entertaining thriller I thought. A good compliment to The Bourne Identity. This second film has a different focus to the first - less of him exploring his past and more about him being hunted but also doing some hunting of his own. Overall, I thought it was good.

Softball is over :(

We had the last game of our softball season last night. We just managed to scrape a team together - what with injuries and people working we only had 8 fit players - and it paid off because we won for only the 3rd or 4th time this season. We actually played very well, with people who don't normally hit very well having some great hits. Anyway, we were all sad that the season is over and can't wait for next year. There is something addictive about softball.

The Olympics are still compelling. Highlight so far (superceding the rowing) has been Kelly Holmes's win in the women's 800m. It is now officially my favourite Olympic moment of all time.

We're possibly going to see The Bourne Supremacy this evening. If we do, I'll let you know what I thought of it.

Olympic Mania...

The Olympics are well into the last week now and so far have been a great event I think. There have been some ridiculous decisions by referees and judges (upholding appeals by athletes who had been disqualified) but apart from that the competition has been great. Highlight for me so far has been the Mens Coxless Fours Rowing with GB getting the gold by 0.08 seconds ahead of Canada. I also really enjoyed the swimming and have been able to see a bit of the sailing too, which has been another great sport for the Brits.

Liverpool got a nice win on Saturday, 2-1 over Manchester City. Steven Gerrard is once again showing that he is the best midfielder in the country and that Liverpool would probably really struggle without him. On Saturday he set up the first goal and scored the winner.

For Marla and I it is the quiet before the storm, so to speak. With us going to the USA next Thursday we have been staying at home trying to save our money. Soon our thoughts will turn to packing and making sure the cat and house are cared for when we are away. At the moment it looks like Griff will house-sit for us, which is very nice of him.

Yesterday afternoon we had a very nice few hours in Alice Park with a bit of a picnic and a quick game of Boules. Marla went out with her work colleagues for a Hen Night (bachelorette party) on Friday night and seemed to have a good time. And on Saturday night we gathered at Andy & Fi's house for a poker/Olympics night. Marla was the big winner in the poker. Other than that we have been staying in, watching the Olympics and working. That's all for now.

Time flies...

It has been almost another week between posts. I really am slacking. The week went fine. Olympics kicked off on Friday night. I've tried to watch as much of it as I can this weekend. Great Britain got its first medal last night - a silver in the men's syncronized high board diving. I didn't even know that the sport existed!

Other sporting news is that the Premiership football season started yesterday. Liverpool drew 1-1 away at Tottenham. The biggest news in footie this week though has been the departure of Michael Owen from Liverpool to Real Madrid. There is still a bit of a mystery as to why he decided to go so soon after seemingly saying he was happy to stay at Liverpool. As a Liverpool supporter I am sad to see him go. Until the recent emergence of Steven Gerrard, Owen was Liverpool's one shining light in what have been relatively dark years. I will specifically remember the two goals he scored in less than 10 minutes in the 2001 FA Cup Final to beat Arsenal - the second of which is my favourite sporting moment of all time.

We're having a lazy Sunday afternoon at home today... so I had better get back to it.

Apologies for the delay...

It's been a week since my last post. Sorry about that. It has been quite a busy week with one thing and another. Softball on Tuesday, trying to remortgage the house, BBQ at Andy & Fi's on Saturday. Things are well at the moment. They'd be even better if I hadn't woken up this morning with a cold. I hope it doesn't get in the way of softball tomorrow night.

We are off to the US in a few weeks time and so have also been planning out itinerary for the trip. We will be going with my parents, Joe and Jenny. The plan is to spend a week in Sedona, AZ and then do a week of travelling - ending up in San Francisco. The tentative plan is as follows.

Days 1-7: In Sedona and area.
Day 8: Sedona to Gallup, NM via Hubble Trading Post & possibly other places
Day 9: Gallup to Flagstaff, AZ via Canyon de Chelly & quick stop in Monument Valley
Day 10: Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, back to Flagstaff
Day 11: Flagstaff to Bakersfield, CA via Hoover Damn & Las Vegas
Day 12: Bakersfield to San Luis Obispo, CA via Sequoia National Park
Day 13: San Luis Obispo to San Francisco via coastal highway, Monterey & Carmel
Day 14: San Francisco
Day 15: Fly Home

Should be a great trip! It'll be a fair amount of driving but there will be three of us to do it so it shouldn't be too bad. And we'll have had the week in Sedona to relax beforehand.

Before I go, just want to say Happy 30th Birthday to Greg P. I know he checks the blog fairly often. Happy Birthday Greg!

Weekend Update...

... unfortunately not with Norm MacDonald.

As previously mentioned, we (Friendly Fire) played in the Bristol Rec Softball Tournament this weekend. It was a great couple of days, in which we played nine games (5 on Sat and 4 on Sun) - winning only two. However, considering we have only won one other game all season it is actually a marked improvement. Especially when you consider how much we improved over the two days. On Saturday we lost all five games; then on Sunday we won two out of the four and played very well - even in the games we lost. Both days were very hot, with the sports field offering very little shade from the sun and there were a number of minor injuries, including a wasp sting for Marla, bruised shoulder ligaments and a grazed leg for Griff and a contact lens induced eye infection for Rachael. It's a little bit surprising how many injuries occur during a softball season, considering it is a non-contact sport. At the end of the tournament we finished tied for 19th out of the 24 teams, which does not sound very good but was actually a good result for us given our poor day on Saturday.

That's all for now, it's a regular working week this week, with a relatively normal weekend in store.

A quick update...

Things going on at the moment:

• Doing more work on the house at the moment.  Just varnished the stairs and will paint the risers this week.  Also working on our inner front door and other miscellaneous parts of the house.
• Will be playing in the Bristol recreational softball tournament next weekend.  Really looking forward to it.
• Susanne and Mark should be in the USA now after making the move from Australia.  Amazing that they were here at the end of May and were talking about moving to the USA much later in the year!

Shrek 2...

We went to see the aforementioned movie last night. It had some great moments I thought. But, in general it was pretty weak. It relied heavily on current events and contemporary topics to make jokes, which means in years to come it will have lost a lot of what made it funny as current trends are forgotten. There were some great moments though, most of them based on the very good Puss in Boots character (voiced by Antonio Banderas), and there were some great movie in-jokes - scenes from Alien, From Here To Eternity, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Austin Powers and others were parodied to good effect. Overall though, it was pretty average. A nice way to spend a couple of hours but with no staying power. I certainly won't be going back to the cinema to see it again.

A softball-fest...

The Windsor Softball Tournament was excellent. I took very few pictures but here is a shot of a game on the Sunday (2nd day).  The team in red were the Manchester Mavericks, I don't remember the name of the team in white & blue.  There were 48 teams split into three leagues: A (the best), B and C (the worst).  The team we played for, the Flatpackers (so called because they are mostly Ikea employees), were competing in the C League - we played a total of eight games and won only two.  We finished 15th out of the 20 teams in the C League.  Marla played in six games and was a DH in the other two.  I played in four and was DH in another.  There were fewer women on our team than men so the rotation system meant the men got to play fewer games.
 
So we had 48 hours of non-stop softball and, believe it or not, all I wanted to do on Monday was play a bit more softball.  There is a similar tournament in Bristol in two weeks time, which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

My First Ever Opinion Piece, Part I...

Recently I have become more than usually annoyed at the British media. It has become the norm during the last couple of weeks in tabloid newspapers and other low-brow media (such as ITV) to report that this summer has so far been a summer of British sporting failure. Presumably, the "failures" in question are England losing in the quarter-final of Euro 2004, Tim Henman losing in the quarter-final of Wimbledon and, more recently, Jenson Button finishing 4th in Sunday's British Grand Prix. It is difficult for me to describe just how annoying I find this attitude. True failures would have been England failing to qualify for Euro 2004, Tim Henman losing in the 1st round of Wimbledon and Button finishing outside the points in the GP.
 
It is this sort of ill-informed opinion that makes it difficult for me to talk about sport with anyone but true sports fans. I had a conversation with someone recently who disliked Tim Henman and thought he was a failure because he has never won Wimbledon. Despite being consistently one of the ten best players in the world (ranked number five at the moment), winning numerous ATP tournaments, and competing at least in the last-eight of Wimbledon for most of the last decade, Henman is somehow still a failure. In a separate conversation I had with someone else about England's opening 2-1 loss to France at Euro 2004, the England performance was described as "typically English... they didn't really want to win"; apparently overlooked was the fact that they had played better and harder than anyone had anticipated and were winning after 90 minutes only to be defeated by a series of aberrations. These two opinions are perfect examples of the two most common of my annoyances. They are:
 
1. The two-weeks-of-the-year fan
2. The England-are-crap-at-everything skeptic
 
Tennis is a perfect way to illustrate the two-weeks-of-the-year fan. They are the sort of people who think that Wimbledon is the only major tennis tournament each year. These fans are probably vaguely aware of the Australian, French and US Opens but don't watch them and almost certainly are not aware that there are at least two top-level professional tournaments every week from January to November. They think that the player that wins Wimbledon is the best player in the world (which, of course, can often be true but isn't necessarily so). Golf has the same issue - perhaps to a lesser extent - with The Open Championship, which started today. And Formula One, with the British GP, sometimes also produces its own particular breed of this fan. My annoyance is that these people consider themselves knowledgeable about their respective sports and are happy to throw about their opinions and make sweeping statements like, "Tim Henman is no good at tennis." Before one makes such a statement, one should surely check to see whether it is actually a defendable position.
 
The media must also take considerable heat regarding this issue. After Henman lost his quarter-final match this year the papers were full of "Henman fails again" and "Wimpledon" headlines. As a nation we should actually be congratulating Henman. His record on the ATP tour and at Wimbledon over the last few years has been fantastic. Would Henman critics prefer to go back to the days of Jeremy Bates (who once made it to the 4th round of Wimbledon) and Chris Bailey (who once had a dramatic 5-set 2nd round defeat)? For they were all we had before Tiger Tim came along. One of the problems is that expectations are very high. Thanks largely to the media people expect Henman to win Wimbledon every year and so when he loses in the SF or QF, rather than just being disappointed, the nation thinks he has failed. The media is to blame here for sure. Of course, Henman believes he can win every tournament he enters, but one thing he doesn't do is expect to win. Whereas the media, and hence the public, do expect him to win. The heightened expectation stems from a lack of true knowledge about the sport. Another thing Henman regularly gets criticised for is an apparent lack of "fire". People use the Tiger Tim nickname in a sarcastic way implying that he has no fight in him. However, one thing people within the game know about Henman is that he is tough. The excellent commentator, analyst and ex-player Pat Cash - who is not really a fan of Henman - has in the past criticised people who doubt Henman's toughness, saying that one thing that Henman really does have going for him is his toughness and determination.
 
Ultimately, I suppose I cannot be too harsh with the two-weeks-of-the-year fan. They are fans and cheer the players on when the time is right.  The media on the other hand are not forgivable.  Their only motivation is to sell newspapers and will do so by getting people excited, boosting expectations and then, when things don't go perfectly, are the first ones to kick the fallen hero.
 
If you're still with me after all that, you'll be pleased to know that Part II will be coming soonish...

Windsor here we come...

Tomorrow evening Marla and I are off to a softball tournament in Windsor for the weekend. I have very little information about the event other than it spans both Saturday and Sunday. We are going with three other members of our team and quite a few members of another team that compete in our weekly league (The Flatpackers they are known as - because they are Ikea employees!). It's a camping event so we have all our equipment inventoried and ready and have just purchased supplies from Safeway.

Griff and Rachael are not coming unfortunately, it would have been a lot of fun with them but they are going to the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. We would have gone to that if there had not been the softball tournament the same weekend.

It will be interesting to see how the tournament is organised. I assume there will be some sort of round-robin league with perhaps a knock out event later on. But we will find out. There will be at least 16 people on our team so I'm sure I won't get to play every game - and maybe I won't want to - but I hope I get to play quite a lot.

I am also working on an opinion piece for the weblog. Something that I have been musing over for a couple of weeks and thought I would try to get off my chest, however, once I started writing the post I quickly realised that I had more to say on the subject than I had anticipated. So, I have decided to make it a two-parter. Part one coming soon...

Parties, surprise and otherwise...

It's the time of year for birthdays. Andy's was June 30, Dad's was July 3, Paul's was July 6 and Rachael's is this Tuesday. Last week we went to Thai Balcony with my parents, my brother and Jenny to celebrate Dad's birthday. I'm still not 100% convinced by Thai food. I liked what I had, but was very safe in my choice of Red Chicken Curry... I'll branch out next time and see how I fair. After our meal we went back to Mum & Dad's house and had cake. Lovely.

Last night was Paul's surprise 30th birthday party at a pub/restaurant called The Ring O Bells. There was considerable planning by Rachael and some moments during the planning when the cat was almost completely let out of the bag. As it turned Paul had an idea something was going on and so was only mildly surprised. The night was good anyway with Rachael's step-dad's band playing two sets - plenty of Hendrix and The Beatles, very good. Marla made a massive cake, which was very well received and all in all the evening went very well indeed.

The usual...

After the excitement of Euro 2004 and our trip to Spain, things have returned to normal. Marla is not very well at the moment - a bit of a cold - and the weather is going to turn awful in the next few days. On a brighter note, Steven Gerrard has made a statement of his commitment to Liverpool FC, which is a great relief to fans everywhere I should think after it looked like he would leave for sure. It also means that Michael Owen is more likely to stay with the club as well.

Spain, exciting and luxurious...

Just returned from Spain yesterday evening. We stayed at Jim and Patsy's (Fi's parents) - at their house about 1.5 hour's drive NW of Barcelona - in a tent in their front yard. There were 13 of us in total and so things got a bit chaotic at times but considering there were so many we did a very good job of keeping on top of logistical issues and keeping everyone happy. We spent a lot of our time either lounging around or playing in Jim & Patsy's swimming pool but we did manage to go on a few great trips. This picture is taken at the fortified bridge leading to the medieval town of Besalu (about an hour from our basecamp), which we visited on our way back from a trip into the mountains. We also went sailing one day with a friend of Jim's, spent a little while at one of the local beaches, celebrated Andy's birthday and made several trips into the nearby resort of Platja D'Aro. I have prepared an Ofoto album, the URL is:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1t0q0p7.bu8d2pnb&x=0&y=wtpvl8

Sad, yet annoying...

England are out of Euro 2004. They lost to Portugal after a penalty shoot-out. Full-time ended 1-1. Extra time ended 2-2. And we lost the shoot-out 6-5. There are lots of things to say about it - plenty of reasons for the defeat - but it would make this post far too long and I doubt any of you care that much anyway (if, indeed, anyone reads this anymore). So, I will bullet point my views for those that might have seen the game:

• Great goal by Owen
• Heskey should have come on instead of Vassell after Rooney injury
• Referee was dreadful - and biased against England
• Midfield looked exhausted
• Campbell and Cole were magnificent
• Campbell's disallowed goal should have stood
• Beckham was unlucky to take first penalty with such a dodgy penalty spot

This will be the last post before we go to Spain. Depending on Internet access I may be able to post a message while we are there and maybe even post a photo or two. So, until next time...

Spain have gone home and we're going with them...

So Spain were knocked out of Euro 2004. As were Italy last night in the most dramatic of circumstances; they scored a last gasp winner (2-1) in their game against Bulgaria and celebrated because they thought it was enough to qualify for the next round, but at the same time as their goal Sweden scored in their game against Denmark to make the score 2-2, which is the result that was needed to see both Sweden and Denmark qualify and Italy to be eliminated. Heartbreak for the Italians.

We're off to Spain on Saturday. I started getting my things prepared: the pre-pack preparation you might call it. Looks like I'll be able to pack all my clothes into my backpack! Which is good seeing as we have to take our tent with us and have a personal checked baggage limit of 15kg.

More later, bye for now.

Like an outgrowing radish...

Once again, the title of this post has little to do with the post itself; I'm just running out of interesting things to say.

Just had Andy, Fi & Griff over to watch the England vs Croatia game. It was a fine game of football, won by England 4-2. Croatia scored the first goal and for 40 minutes it looked like England were never going to get on the scoreboard despite being easily the best team. Then Scholes scored for England after good work by Lampard, Owen and Rooney. It was Scholes's first goal for England in three years! Then five minutes later Rooney blasted in a shot from outside the box; set up by a nice move involving Owen & Scholes again sucking in the defenders leaving Rooney is space just where he is most dangerous. In the second half Rooney scored again when he ran on to a great through ball from Owen and calmly sent the Croatian keeper the wrong way. The one downside to the game was that England look very susceptible to corners and free kicks around the box. Both Croatia's goals came from wide free kicks with England not looking confident in the air. Frank Lampard got England's 4th.

So, England are through to the Quarter Finals and will play Portugal on Thursday. France won the group and will play Greece in their QF.

At home, Marla and I are starting to prepare for our trip to Spain next week. We will be staying with Fi's parents at the new home near Barcalona. Andy and Fi are leaving on Wednesday along with Jason, Marie and Andy's parents. Paul, Rachael, Griff and the two of us will join them on Saturday and will stay until the following Friday. We've got softball tomorrow night and the England-Portugal game on Thursday so we really only have Wednesday and Friday to get our things together.

Apart from the trip things are mostly normal. Had a very nice message from Rob Scutti (from KC) on Sunday reminding us that the US Grand Prix was about to start... it was an incident packed race and Schumacher (Rob's favourite) won, so hopefully Rob enjoyed it. That's all for now.

A rumber of thundle...

Sorry, that title has nothing to do with the post it's just something funny that the TV weatherman said today. So, England beat Switzerland 3-0 this afternoon. It was a great result and an OK performance. Rooney scored two (although one hit the post and went in off the goalie's head) and Gerrard scored the third. The key players for England (Scholes, Beckham, Gerrard and Owen) all played a bit better than against France although none of them are up to the standard they can be. Anyway, with France and Croatia drawing 2-2 (crazy result, by the way) it means that England will go through to the next round if they draw or win against Croatia on Monday.

On the home front, things are fine. Our softball team lost again on Tuesday. The weather is cooling off a bit after a week or two of heat. We had dinner at my parent's house tonight, which was nice. Although Dad's back is really bad, which means he is in pain and his movement is considerably restricted.

That's all for now.

Rumours...

Just in case any of you have forgotten what I look like, here I am! This was at Anfield earlier in the year. I heard a rumour today that Steven Gerrard has made a verbal transfer request to leave Liverpool, which if true could be a real blow to the team. I am a little doubtful whether it is true though considering the timing - why would he do something like that during a major championship like Euro2004?

Bugger...

England lost to France 2-1 last night. I wouldn't mind so much except they lost it in the worst way. They played very well and were 1-0 up at full time. Then France scored from a free kick and a penalty in the three minutes of extra time - thanks to silly mistakes by England players. It could be a real confidence killer - but hopefully the team will take heart from the fact that for 90 minutes they were better than the best team in the world.

Sniff.

Keeping up with the Clists...

Andy has a new-look weblog so I thought I should not get left behind and so have chosen this bright and cheerful environment. Hope you like it.

HP Prisoner

Saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (or HP Prisoner as the board at the cinema called it) on Wednesday. I liked it a lot. More than just an entertaining couple of hours (like films 1 & 2). It was actually a good film. The main cast are growing into their roles nicely and it was well directed I thought. A lot darker than the first two (as is the book I understand), which meant they had made the sets much more sinister and more moody - not necessarily a bad thing, but I would have liked them to keep Hogwarts more or less the same throughout the series. Apart from that minor problem, I thoroughly recommend it. 3 or 3.5 stars (maybe 3.25).

Euro 2004, An Introduction...

Euro 2004 starts on Saturday. For the uninitiated, Euro 2004 is the trendy name of the European Football (soccer) Championships. It is basically the Europe-only version of the World Cup and in my opinion (and the opinion of many people inside the footballing world) is more difficult to win than the World Cup. Sixteen teams split into four groups of four. Each group plays round-robin with the top two teams from each group going through to the Quarter Finals. The key difference between the European Championships and the World Cup is the fact that there are relatively few mediocre teams. In the World Cup there is quite often one or two weak teams from Central and South America, plus teams from Asia & Africa that are not always top class. In the Euro's all the teams are quality (except for Latvia, but no-one knows how they managed to qualify) and every game is hard to win.

England have a good chance of doing very well. Last time I checked they were 8-1 sixth favourites to win the tournament, but I think their chances are better than that. They have a very difficult opening game against the favourites and holders France but man for man against France I think there are a number of favourable match-ups for England. France's defense is a bit long in the tooth these days and so hopefully Micahel Owen and Wayne Rooney (England's attackers) can run them ragged. The other two teams in England's group are Croatia and Switzerland, neither of which should be a problem for England.

So, from this Saturday (June 12) there will be games almost every day until the final on the 4th of July. Stay tuned for updates.

www.euro2004.com

Many thanks to the pioneers...

Thanks go to Greg P. for completing the first successful test of the comment feature. Everyone else can now see that it works and should also proceed to use it.

Played softball again tonight. Lost again - we still have not won a game. Everything looked good until the 4th inning when we gave up five runs (mostly from walks!). Marla played very well and I played good defense at SS but could not hit at all. Griff has moved from 2B and is now playing 3B (trying to emulate Joe Randa). Marla and Rachael are a nice little middle OF partnership.

Going to see Harry Potter tomorrow night - quite looking forward to that. I'll try to give a report later in the week. And then on Sunday there is a TV-fest at Rachael's flat. The Classic Movie Club will be meeting to watch The Graduate, then there is the Canadian GP and then the highlight of the day, England vs France in the European Championships.

Another weblog improvement...

Hot on the heels of adding the ability to post pictures directly to the weblog, I have now enabled a comments feature. From now on, all my posts will have a comments link at the bottom. Clicking on that link will take you to an area where you can read other people's comments and actually post a comment yourself. I have no idea whether it's something any of you will use, but I guess I'll find out.

Hello BloggerBot...

This is a test of a new function of my weblog (called the BloggerBot!) where I can quickly and easily upload images. This is a photo from our visit to Lacock Abbey while Susanne and Mark were here. Clicking on the image should pull up a larger version.

Many photographs...

I managed to put the photos from Susanne & Mark's visit into an Ofoto album, here it is:

Susanne & Mark

I also created an album from the opening night of the Bath Music Festival which was the 21st of May - the day before the Imrie-Holloways arrived, it is here:

Opening night of festival

Good times...

Susanne and Mark left early on Monday morning. We were staying at the Park Lane Hotel (thanks to great rates because Mark works for the company) and they caught a cab to Heathrow. It was too early for us to be bothered to see them go so we said fairwell in the hallway the night before. That day (the Sunday) we had spent plenty of time walking around London. In the morning we had done the usual tourist stuff of Westminster-Whitehall-Trafalgar Square-The Mall-Buckingham Palace and then after a nice lunch in the hotel we had a fruitless and wet walk to a closed Harrod's in Knightsbridge.

I have yet to download the pictures from my digital camera but should be able to do that this evening and post them at Ofoto quite soon.

Life is now back to the day-to-day grind. The next thing to look forward to is the European Championships (Euro 2004) which starts on the 12th of this month. England drew 1-1 with Japan last night in a preparation game and the consensus was that they will have to improve dramatically if they are to get a decent result from their first game of the tournament which is against the Champions France.

Antipodean visitors...

Susanne and Mark have been visiting Bath since last Saturday - when we picked them up from Heathrow Terminal 4. We have done a great deal of tourist-related activities including trips to the Roman Baths, No.1 Royal Crescent, Cheddar Gorge, the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum and the SS Great Britain. For the first five nights they stayed with us at our house and are now staying at Andy & Fi's house for the weekend before we all go to London for a night in the Park Lane Hotel.

One of the highlights of their stay so far was the fantastic meal Mark cooked for us on Monday - chicken, mango & camembert filo with spinach and asparagus along with a fine Sauvignon Blanc from Oyster Bay, New Zealand.

There will be many photographs of Mark and Susanne's stay in one of the next posts... stay tuned!

Sunny days...

It is a beautiful day in Bath today. I took this photo on my way to work this morning. It shows the view East (roughly) towards Batheaston, Bathampton, etc.



We played softball last night. Even though we lost I thought we played quite well. I was happy with my play and there were also great moments from eveyone else - including a home run by Griff.

Susanne and Mark arrive on Saturday. Hooray!

Update city...

Rascal appears to be completely better. He eats as much as he used to and has started going into next door's garden - he's not supposed to do that!

Liverpool have qualified for the Champions League by finishing 4th in the Premiership. Newcastle drew with both Wolves and Southampton and so the game tomorrow at Anfield will have no bearing on 4th place.

Neill's book sold well at the launch - he estimated 70 sales.

My parents have just returned from their trip to Skiathos (Greek island) - it was a good trip apparently. Haven't seen them yet - but they called when they were on their way home from the airport.

Had the first meeting of the Classic Movie Club last night. Six of the ten of us got together and watched The Godfather. What a movie! Voting has begun to see what the next film will be, the nominations are Bringing Up Baby, The Maltese Falcon, From Here to Eternity, The Graduate & Chinatown.

The weblog is so bland without pictures... maybe next post I'll have something to show you. Practicing softball on Sunday so maybe I'll take the camera.

Neill's Book Launch...

Neill - the photographer I work for - had the launch of his new book last night. It was quite a nice event at the Victoria Art Gallery here in Bath, with a few high-profile guests including the Mayor of Bath. The book is a coffee table book called BATH and is written by Kirsten Elliott with all the photos taken by Neill. It's jolly nice. You can buy if from Amazon.co.uk here.

I am now 30 years old...

The birthday celebrations have passed. Here is a brief report: Camping, as previously mentioned, went well. On Wednesday - not my birthday - My parents, Joe and Marla & I went to Bottelinos in Bath. It is an Italian restaurant that I had fond memories of. Unfortunately, I found the food not so good. My piccante pizza was not at all piccante. After dinner we went back home and I opened my presents from Mum & Dad, Marla and Joe. Plus we had cake that was made by Joe and was the sweetest cake ever. Dinner aside, it was a great evening.

Then on Thursday - my actual birthday - we had Andy, Fi, Joe, Paul, Rach, Griff, Jay & Marie over to our place. It was a great evening. Rachael made Lasagne, Griff brought a starter, Andy & Fi brought dessert (plus we had some of Joe's sweet cake left over). It was a fab meal. Then there were presents again. It was all finished off with a game of Cranium - which my team won.

All in all, a great birthday. Photos can be found in this Ofoto album.

The only downside to the week was that Rascal was not well at all and we made a couple of trips to the vet. Luckily, he appears to be a bit better today, so hopefully he is recovering.

Now thoughts turn to Susanne & Mark's visit at the end of the month!

P.S. The Premiership season is drawing to a close. Liverpool are still in 4th spot and are still in the "driver's seat". A win against Newcastle next weekend will do the business. As I type Newcastle have just drawn 1-1 with Wolves which means that they have to win their mid-week game vs Southampton and the game in Liverpool to finish 4th.

Camping...

We had a very nice time camping this past weekend. We did not go far - a place called Stowford Farm about 10 or 15 miles from Bath - but it was far enough away to feel like a bit of a holiday. Weather was mixed - with rain on Saturday and Monday but fantastic on Sunday. It was the first outing for our tent (the Vango Gamma 450) and for the Clist's tent (the Blacks Kintail - sorry no link) and both tents performed admirably. My parents and Joe & Jenny arrived Sunday afternoon and camped with us too. Joe got to try his new tent (the Vango Delta 300) and was pretty happy with it.

The funniest moment of the weekend was when Joe fell through the chair he was sitting on. Wine went everywhere, but he managed to keep hold of his hotdog. Paul was quick on the draw and managed to get this good photo:



That's all for now. My birthday on Thursday, so more after that I should think.

Great marketing...

A company in Washington state that makes bags and backpacks has started using a care label with a subtle (or maybe not so subtle) political statement. Not only is it quite funny but also is a great way to get publicity. Check them out at http://www.tombihn.com/ and look for the "The notorious French/English care label" link near the bottom of the page.

Softball, Game 1

We played our first game of the season this evening. We lost 15-18 to Orange Animals. We all agreed that we played quite well and were all positive regardless of the loss. All four of us played well, Marla made a great catch in the outfield, Rachael got some great hits and played well at RF, and Griff & I started what might become a nice little middle-infield partnership (Griff at 2B and me at SS). We had a few put-outs and one double play. We're all looking forward to next week!

Best news ever?

Susanne and Mark will be coming to the UK at the end of May. It's hard to explain how happy I am about this - we have not seen them since their wedding in Colorado - that was November 2000!

Weekends past and birthdays to come...

Monday morning again. We had a decent weekend, although Marla had to go to work both days. She is working tres hard at the moment... but the worst of it should have passed after Tuesday and her big inspection. On Saturday we had a practice session for our softball team. Griff, Marla and I went and had a great time. Our first game is on Tuesday, so we needed a bit of practice.

Yesterday we went to the Assembly Inn quiz. After winning last week our hopes were high. However, they were soon dashed when we learned it was a St. Georges day themed quiz. It was not really our cup of tea and we limped home in 8th place.

It's Joe's 24th birthday on Thursday - and my 30th the following Thursday - and we have all sorts of meals out planned. Plus we will be going camping next weekend with the gang, which should a great time and a chance for us to use our new tent for the first time. More about the camping later in the week.

The biggest news from the weekend is that Liverpool beat Manchester United 1-0. A great result which keeps hopes of 4th place alive. It would have been even better if Newcastle hadn't also beaten Chelsea 2-1 but at least Liverpool still control their fate, as it were, and can keep 4th place if they win all their remaining matches - including the season finale against Newcastle!

Pictures from Anfield...

Finally got the pictures from our trip to Anfield up on an Ofoto album:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1t0q0p7.28p04k7r&x=0&y=iusesa

Liverpool vs Fulham...

Literally just returned home from our trip to Liverpool. It was an excellent trip with everything going to plan in terms of timing and getting to see all the things we wanted to at Anfield. The game was good, even though it was a 0-0 draw, which from Liverpool's perspective is a poor result. For my money the Reds had the best of the game and created plenty of chances but were unable to break through and Gerrard had a penalty saved which was a huge dissappointment. Right, that'll be all from me for now. I'm off to bed soon. I'll have the photos on-line tomorrow.

Illness and a classic movie...

I felt very unwell today and spent most of the day in bed. It looks like the illness that got Andy & Rachael while we were in Cornwall is working its way through us all - Griff & Fi were ill today too and Marla has just said that she does not feel too good. Hopefully me, Griff and Marla will all have recovered before we go to Liverpool this Saturday.

This evening I watched To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time in quite a while. It is truly one of the greatest movies ever - of course the book is astounding too. Atticus Finch is the perhaps the greatest character in any film. I recommend both the book and the film to all.

Cornwall...

We have just returned from Cornwall after an eventful trip. We had a great time and went to numerous places, including The Eden Project, the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth and The Minnack Theatre. We also had considerable troubles with illness with our departure delayed by a day due to it. Both Andy and Rachael were very ill - Rachael recovered enough that she, Paul, Griff and Marla were able to return on Monday. Andy was too ill so I stayed behind and came back with him and Fi today.

You can see the best of the photos I took at the following Ofoto Gallery:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=1t0q0p7.2klzfx93&x=0&y=ms5kzy

Departure imminent...

We're leaving for Cornwall this evening. The traffic will be an absolute nightmare due to the Easter rush. Luckily I'm going to be a passenger so I am not that bothered. We're driving down with Paul and Rachael. The plan is to pick Marla up from her workplace as soon as we can get there. Marla, more than anyone, is looking forward to the break. She has been working very hard recently and deserves to relax a bit.

Baseball...

We signed up for the MLB.tv service today. It's amazing. For $79.95 (£44) you can watch virtually any baseball game you like live via your web browser. In addition to that they archive every game so you can watch them later. The video quality is by no means TV standard but it is very watchable, see:



I would recommend it to anyone that is interested in baseball.

One other thing, yesterday we booked our tickets for the flight to Spain in June. We'll be leaving on the 26th of June and returning on the 2nd of July. It'll be a great trip.

Andy's Blog...

Just announcing that Andy has started a weblog of his own. Check it out at:

http://andyclist.blogspot.com/

I've also added it to my links.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention this earlier, but my Grand National prediction was a load of old tosh. Red Striker didn't even run and my two other picks (Shardam & Takagi) both fell early. Half way through the race I said, "I have a bit of a soft spot for Puntal" who then promptly fell at the next fence. Don't ever listen to me if I give you betting advice.

WLAN, Football, Pub Quiz & Baseball Draft - all thoroughly exciting issues!

Update on the problems with my WLAN... I think it is a problem with my modem actually. It might even be something stupid like the cable comes out of the socket a little bit and the contact is poor. Anyway, I'm sure you are all relieved to know that it is working now.

Liverpool won 4-0 against Blackburn Rovers yesterday. Owen scored twice, which is a good sign and perhaps adds potential for excitement to our trip to Anfield on the 17th. I saw one of his goals on TV this morning, it was a cracker.

Six of us participated in the Assembly Inn quiz last night (me, Marla, Andy, Fi, Jay & Marie). We had our best result ever by finishing joint-second. Only three points behind the winners.

The fantasy baseball draft went well on Saturday night (and Sunday morning). We couldn't manage to get Chris's web cam working so there was no video conference, but MSN Messenger did the job well. Griff came over too and we watched two movies while waiting for others to make their picks. I am happy with my team.

A bit of a rant...

My wireless LAN is a mystery. Two nights in a row now it has stopped connecting to the Internet even though the computers can still detect each other and the router, and every status monitor says nothing is wrong (and Xbox Live still works!). Two nights in a row I've messed with the network settings, turned the router off and on, and so on, with no results - until, out of the blue it starts to work again. I have no idea what, if anything, I did to fix it. Oh well, at least it is working again. Maybe it'll happen tomorrow night as well, which will give me another chance to figure out the mystery.

On a brighter note, there is a great day of sport tomorrow. The FA Cup Semi Final between Manchester United and Arsenal is on at noon, followed by the Grand National. I won't be betting any money on the National, but I will proclaim to the world that I am picking a horse called Red Striker to win the race.

Then, in the evening (actually 10:00pm) Griff and I will be Yahoo! Messengering it up to participate in Chris Esch's fantasy baseball draft. I was trying to set up my webcam earlier (perhaps catalyst to my WLAN problems) so that we can see what's going on at draft HQ - but no luck so far.

More footy & Easter plans...

England lost to Sweden 1-0 in a friendly last night. Steven Gerrard was captain in the absence of David Beckham and Michael Owen. I like Sven's policy of making the best player the captain. Anyway, it means Gerrard's streak of never losing when playing for England is over.

I forgot to mention that we have good plans for the Easter weekend. We'll be going to Cornwall with the gang (Andy, Fi, Paul, Rach, Griff, Jay & Marie) to stay a few days at Andy's parents house & chalet. It's also Fi's birthday on the 11th so there'll be a double celebration.

Oh, it's April Fool's Day today and I've already had a joke played on me. Fell for it hook, line & sinker. I'm so gullible!

Our view at Anfield...

Still in excited-mode, I did some looking around and found this image. When we go to Anfield in April this is roughly the view we will get from the Anfield Road Stand:



Image was from the Liverpool FC website but now they've changed the site and I can't find it anymore.

Softball begins...

Marla, Griff and I went to the Bristol Softball Association beginners practice session tonight to see if we could find a team that would take us for this summer's season. It worked out very well actually because the first person we spoke to asked us to join their team! So, we are now members of the third division team called Friendly Fire. The session was very well organised and it looks like the whole thing is very slick. It was a good sign for the coming season. I've added a link to the Association's website... and it is here too: http://www.bristolsoftball.com/.

First ever post and some latest news

This is the first ever post on my weblog. Cool. Just got tickets to go to the Liverpool-Fulham game at Anfield on April 17. It'll be my first time ever to Anfield and my first time ever seeing Liverpool play in person. I would have to say that I am a little excited. There'll be five of us going altogether - Me, Marla, Mum, Dad & Griff. Needless to say, there'll be a weblog update after we get back from that!