C Ya

Bit hectic at the moment as off to Glasto first thang, found out that beave and Chris are going to so look forward to seeing them by the cider tent.

Good to see Spain come through last night, Fabregas changed the game again by coming on, Aragones has got to play him in the final. As for Arshavin, Barca are welcome to him, he couldn't step up when it mattered and Cesc was just majestic. ...

Hope y'all have a good weekend and if Arsenal sign Peter Crouch I plan to leave the country, adios!

Where's Me Tea?

Packing up the last few things for Glasto, dilemmas over how many pairs of pants to take, etc. I need to get some cigarette filters as they are brilliant for using in the toilets at the festival, by that I mean that you stick them up your nose before entering a latrine to avoid the lovely odour. You see some pretty memorable things in those toilets, especially the 'pit' ones; if you dare look down you are treated to various sticky floaty objects that definitely belong on the inside of a sewage pipe.

Still can't believe how much fuss is being made over the Jay Z thing. The story must be big as even my 90 yr old Gran mentioned it to me on the phone over the weekend (Ok, so she didn't know his name, "that rapper fellow") and thought he was going on first, but I'll let her off. I don't mind a bit of hove, but Massive Attack are playing the Other Stage at the same time so its no contest really; I've always wanted to see them but have never managed to so I'm really looking forward to a deeply moving experience (I hope the Imodium hasn't worn out by then, as always, I'm planning on "corking up" for the weekend).

Doctor Who was ridiculously good on Saturday, well excited about the next 2 episodes, be good to see "ol' raisin bonce" Davros again.

Did some gardening yesterday which was ace. We've planted a few onions, lettuce and some salad leaves this year so hoping to chomp on them before long. I really ache today tho, must be getting old 'cos I seem to ache for much longer than usual these days, at this rate I'll be wandering around like Grandad from 'Bread' before too long...

Blimey, blimey, blimey , blimey

Quick Euro 2008 interlude, what a couple of cracking games we've had in the last 2 days, well, cracking periods of extra time at least. The Turkey - Croatia game was quite remarkable, never seen anything like it in my life, but well done to the Turks, who now go on to face Richard Berry's Germany in the semis. Feel a bit sorry for the Dutch but the Ruski's deserved their win, and lets hope Arsene in readying his chequebook in order to grab Arshavin as he looks absolute quality.

Italy v Spain later, can't see Luca Toni starting again, that bloke couldn't score in a brothel with a blank cheque at the moment; let's hope Fabregas has a good game and stays out of harms way. Wonder if he'll get his 'way' and see Villa at Arsenal next season (if the Adebayor stories are true?).

Quick congrats goes out to Dave and Pauline, who had a little girl this week, good work Boardman's.

Got a good week lined up, Lou's birthday on Tuesday, only working 2 and a half days, and off to Glasto on Friday, sweet.

Was supposed to be playing cricket today but the weather looks pants, never mind, enjoy the rain.

Shot Down

Read this week that legendary footie magazine Shoot! is stopping production. I used to get it every week (Nathan would always get 'Match', but I thought that was a bit rubbish) and was a bit sad when I heard this news. I recall the player interviews and the league ladders most fondly; although when i used to read it, Arsenal were nowhere near the top of the table (you obviously had the option to cheat and place them at the summit of the Canon League Div One). The player interviews were also quality, I once 'did one' on Kristian, his 'Player for the Future' was Rafael Meade, who looked mint as a youngster then just seemed to disappear. I nicked this from an article in the Guardian, but here are some highlights from genuine player interviews:

Mark Lawrenson (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Favourite food and drink?
Lasagne and Lambrusco.

Gerry Francis (Queens Park Rangers)
Favourite players?
Myself followed by team-mate Stan Bowles and West Germany's Uli Hoeness.
Favourite Singer?
Captain Beefheart.
Which person in the world would you most like to meet?
Patrick McGoohan.

Diego Maradona (Argentina)
Favourite food?
Oven-roasted meat.
Miscellaneous dislikes?
Injustice.

Alan Birchenall (Leicester City)
Which person in the world would you most like to meet?
Hitler (if still alive) – or Neil Diamond. (Christ!)

Alan Ball (Arsenal)
Likes?
All foods, lager.
Dislikes?
Women cigarette smokers.

Gary Lineker (Leicester City)
Favourite newspaper?
Daily Star.
Nickname?
Link.
Career after playing?
Hopefully a bookmaker.

Craig Johnston (Liverpool)
Favourite food and drink?
Big steaks and, of course, a tube of Foster's. (What the hell's a tube of Foster's? is it like a tube of smarties? - MD)

Dave Hodgson (Middlesbrough)
After-match routine?
Out to the pub and then on to a nightclub.
Miscellaneous dislikes?
People who misjudge you before meeting you.

Quarter Finals of the Euros start tonight; difficult to call who's going to win at the moment. Germany v Portugal is on later, altho I have no love for either team really. Think Mertesacker would be a good signing for Arsenal tho, he's tall, good in the air and strong for such a foppish looking character.

Played 5 a side last night for the first time in ages, bit of a trek as I now work in Brizzle and the game took place out in Clifton (which for those of you who know the area, is frickin miles away from home), pitches were great tho, Bristol City used to train there and i marked my debut with 2 goals in an 8-5 victory. i obviously need to keep my scoring feet on as competition for places in the team for Amsterdam is fierce, as you can see here.

Finally, there are rumours of a mini festival happening in the teeny tiny village of Orwell, nr Cambridge. Promoter Jamie Fewster is currently unavailable for comment, however, I'll get some soundbites from him as the gig nears. Headlining will be , er, Mark Linggood's band (for the record, its not Mark's band as such, but i don't know what they're called), it has been suggested (by me) that I should do a funk/reggae/Latino set too, but nothing to report on that yet...

Brass Knockers

Well, hello there. Had a nice Fathers Day yesterday in Bath, popped out for an Italian meal Artie Bucco would've been proud of. Ended up down in Pulteney Gardens, scene of the 1993 'Great Deckchair Robbery' (the deckchairs in question can be seen about 5 mins into this video), twas a typical English afternoon, there was even a brass band parping away on the band stand. Their target demographic shone through their music as the song's I heard were the theme from 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum', the theme from 'Dad's Army', the theme from 'Last of the Summer Wine' and finally, a ball-breaking rendition of our National Anthem. Disappointing really, but the old folks seem to enjoy it, it would've been nice if they'd done something a bit more upbeat; I'd even have been happy with the theme from 'Give Us A Clue' (Lionel Blair vintage) or even 'Going for Gold'.

What else has been happening? Well Kris and Ange are back safely from their travels. I say 'back safely' because according to Kristian, they pretty much cursed every destination they thought of visiting. For example, they thought of popping up to Burma, just before the Monky business kicked off; they then though about Pakistan, then Benazir Bhutto was killed. Not put off by these portents of doom, our plucky couple then thought about going to Burma, right before that terrible cyclone hit. They've been back a couple of weeks now, rumour has it they thought about popping to their local garage for some petrol on arrival. Eh? Oh.

As Neil has mentioned on his website, a load of us old BCHEers are off to play some footie and have a much needed catch up in Amsterdam on the August Bank Holiday. Really looking forward to it, we'll be looking to avenge our dodgy 3-2 defeat last year. We are aided (?) this year by having the rather intimidating figure of Neil in goal; however, I'd expect him to break his arse again (probably by slipping on some wee after a disastrous 'Eiffel Tower' impression) well before August so best not count one's chickens yet. Anyhoo, there'll be loads of build up on this site and Neil's over the next few months. Maybe we'll try to put together podcast of something.

Amsterdam nicely segueways into talk of footie in general. The new fixtures were out today, Arsenal's first few fixtures look very winnable, and we could do with a decent start again. Still, so much depends on what happens transfer-wise. I'll save that rant till after Euro 2008, which I've really enjoyed.

Glasto next week, can't believe how quickly it's come round. Really looking forward to seeing Kings of Leon, Massive Attack, Manu Chao, Lightspeed Champion and Kool Keith. Although other stuff usually gets in the way of the bands at Glasto, see ya soon...