What makes my blood boil...

For the first time in what seems like a long time I am writing a post that is not about the twins. I'm here to mention Liverpool's fine 2-1 win over Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday. I thought that Liverpool were just about the better team on the day (certainly for the first hour) and deserved to win. It is pleasing for many reasons besides the obvious (being that Liverpool are now through to the FA Cup Final). Specifically, it is pleasing because Liverpool have beaten Chelsea, the best team in the country, despite the millions spent on them and the arrogance of their manager Jose Mourinho.

And it is Mourinho's attitude towards, Liverpool, the game on Saturday and football in general that has urged me to write this today. His behaviour is unattractive when things are going well for his team, but it is at times like this - when his team have lost - that he aggravates me almost beyond belief. What upsets me most about Mourinho is his lack of respect for almost anything you care to mention: his opponents, the fans, the Premiership, his team, the competitions his team are entered into, but most gallingly the disrespect he has for football, the sport which has made him what he is today - highlighted perfectly by his entirely fabricated story last season about referee Anders Frisk having a meeting with Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard during half-time of their UEFA Champions League match against Chelsea. It is a lie that Mourinho retracted later, however, too late to stop the soul-destroying death threats by Chelsea fans towards Frisk and the referee's subsequent retirement from football.

Whilst not in the same league as the aforementioned example, the list of offences after the game on Saturday are many: refusing to shake his counterpart's (Rafael Benitez) hand after the match, refusing to take responsibility for defeat blaming it on two refereeing decisions, describing his team as demotivated because the Premiership has been so easy for them this season (which you would think would allow his team to concentrate on the other trophies available to them, none of which they will win this season!), and comparing Liverpool (current European Champions) to a fourth division side, to name just a few.

There was an article in the Independent today that sums things up nicely. Strangely it is written by James Lawton who is a journalist that I can rarely stand to read, but today he has hit the nail on the head:

http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article359775.ece

I love this line: "Naturally, Mourinho blamed defeat not on this team-sheet gibberish but the bad aroma of two of the decisions that the referee, Graham Poll, made in favour of Liverpool and, according to some unbiased professional observers, breaking an astonishing tendency to rule routinely for Chelsea in anything that sniffed of 50-50. No, Mourinho was emphatic, this was another mythical defeat of Chelsea by Liverpool."

(I have also added the text of the Article to a comment on this post just in case the Independent removes the article in the future.)

I'm sure that my opinion about Mourinho expresed here will not sit well with some readers, and that's fine. Please feel free to leave any (sensible) comments in response (offensive gibberish will be deleted).

Easter adventures...

Easter greetings to all! We've just spent a couple of days camping for the first time with the twins. We chose a campsite just a few miles from Bath just in case we needed to go home at short notice for any reason. Luckily we did not need to. That is not to say that things weren't difficult. The days were fine, if a little complicated thanks to the lack of high-chairs, puchchairs, changing tables etc., etc. The nights, however, were hard work. The weather was too cold really for camping with little babies and it made for two nights of restlessness, cold faces and cold hands and feet. Plus, when they woke up crying, which they did more than once, I was very aware of the possibility of waking the entire campsite. I'm sure in a few months, once the weather warms up and the twins get a bit older we will try it again, but for the time being we think we will give it a miss.

We went with the usual gang, Andy, Fi (and little Harry, who was under the weather but still coped with the camping thing better than our two), Griff, Paul and Rachael. It was an up and down time with Paul, Andy, Rachael, Marla and Harry all getting ill to one degree or another. All in all it was fun at times and pretty miserable at others.

Anyway, twins seem to be OK at the moment although Morgan has a bit of a cough. They are starting to sit up almost by themselves - they still need guarding though because they do sometimes throw themselves backwards - Maddie is slightly more accomplished at sitting up. Morgan is rolling over at will now, and can roll himself back too. Maddie couldn't care less about rolling over.

Things are still difficult but are gradually getting easier as the weeks and months go by. They were seven months old on Friday! Blimey!

Short update...

This week is Marla's first back at work, so that means that I now spend a day and a half at home with the twins. Marla stays at home Monday and Tuesday, I stay at home all day Wednesday and Thursday morning, the twins go to a child-minder on Thursday afternoon (which is where they are now) and to Nursery all day Friday. Childcare for twins is so expensive so it really is a tight balance for us financially. We think we have got it about right but we will have to see how things go.

We've had a bad couple of months health-wise. Marla and the twins are just recovering from a cold at the moment. It's amazing how much things can be thrown off-kilter when something as seemingly small as a cold is multiplied by twins. There was vomiting and other nasty symptoms as well as a few tricky nights with interrupted sleep and neither of them have their appetite back yet even though the cold symptoms have more-or-less gone.

On the bright side, the weather has started to warm up and we've had a few sunny days recently. It makes going out with the twins much easier and more enjoyable. I can't wait until summer-proper arrives.