No Football On Monday
I like watching football and thought I might catch a live match on Bank Holiday Monday. After all London is a big city with tens of clubs from the Premier League downwards.
But on perusing the fixture list on the BBC’s web site, there is no match from either the Premier or Football Leagues, except Manchester United against Chelsea, which I obviously have no interest in at all, as I don’t like prawn sandwiches or live in Surrey, Ireland or Russia.
In the Conference, I wondered whether Barnet were at home, but sadly they are at Braintree. The only match within reach seems to be at Welling, where they are hosting Salisbury. I did check the Welling web site to see how to get there, but instructions on getting to the ground were difficult to find.
As it seems we might even have decent weather on Monday, it seems that the curse of the Bank Holiday might have struck again.
I can’t even go to my friendly Crown Post Office to buy a stamp, as they’re on strike.
The only good thing about Bank Holidays, is that there isn’t more of them!
Disappointing BT Sport
As a BT broadband customer, who used to get Sky Sports through them, I am disappointed with their new BT Sports. The only decent football matches are on Saturday lunchtime, when I’m travelling to see Ipswich, either home or away. The solution is probably fibre-optic broadband, but I can’t get this where I live, within walking distance of the City of London.
Who Says We Can’t Win Penalty Shoot-Outs?
Not one of my football teams, like England and Ipswich ever seems to win a penalty shoot-out.
But today the England women won a penalty shoot-out to get to the final of the European hockey championship.
Let’s hope they’ve broken everybody’s hoodoo.
Mick McCarthy Splashes The Cash
Mick McCarthy seems to have got in quite a few players this summer, but he doesn’t seem to be forking out a lot of money.
The latest sighting Jordan Adekunle from Crawley is seventeen, so I don’t suppose he broke the bank.
On the other hand,not one of the new signing seems to be a complete dud!
A Restricted View Seat At Loftus Road
My seat at Loftus Road was marked Restricted View, but it wasn’t too bad.
A Restricted View Seat At Loftus Road
In fact, the experience was a lot better than last time I came. QPR seemed to have bought some paint and repaired the seats.
She Did It Because She Thought She Should!
Buried in an opinion in The Times today about athletics, is a statement that Christine Ohuruogo has visited every school in Newham for no other reason than she thinks she should!
Good on you Christine!
Things I Really Want For My Birthday
Today is my birthday and a few years ago, I didn’t think I’d make the next one, let alone the fourth after my stroke.
I’m happy living here in leafy Dalston at the eastern edge of Hackney, but there are a few things, I want for my birthday.
The first is that, I’d love to get my breathing back to the level it was when I lived with C. All I’ve got is a permanently runny nose, just like I had as a child. Perhaps, it’s just London, although it really started after C died and got a lot worse when I had the stroke. If I look back on the last few years, there are times, when it goes, but why does it go. Two doctors have said it’s hay fever, but then another has said, I’ve no allergy except gluten. Certainly, the sea seems to make it better. So perhaps, I need to find an attractive widow, who lives by the coast in say Liverpool or Brighton.
I’d also like my bathroom finished, as it’s been a long time since the first builders started and then effectively gave up or went bust. The job started with the removal of the old bathroom in October last year.
I’d also like some stacking chairs for my living room to go with my table.
At least I’m getting one thing, I really really want and that is having supper in Arbutus.
But I suppose the best birthday present is outside my control. I did think about going to see the World Athletics Championships in Moscow this week. I didn’t, but I didn’t know that Mo Farah would be running in the final tonight. If I had, it might have swayed me.
But knowing my luck, he won’t win tonight! If it had been tomorrow, he’d have walked it.
How Much Beer Was Drunk In Trafalgar Square Yesterday?
Accordiung to this report on the BBC web site, Westminster’s team of cleaners, picked up about two tonnes of empty beer cans in Trafalgar Square yesterday.
if we assume that a can weighs about 20 grams, that means about 100,000 cans of beer were drunk in the square yesterday. Reportedly 25,000 Scots came down to see the match.
But at least little untoward happened!
The same story was reported in The Scotsman and a reader added this comment.
If we can organize this maybe we can handle being independent. Put a deposit on beer cans and the homeless will benefit.
Although, their estimate of the number of cans was a lot lower.
The Germans who came for the Champion League Final didn’t seem to drink much at all.
Greg Dyke On Qatar 2022
Greg Dyke, who is the new FA Chairman, can always be relied on bucketfuls of common sense. His pronouncements this morning on holding the World Cup in 2022 in Qatar are forthright and should be taken seriously by the bunch of elderly time-servers, despots and bribe-takers called FIFA. Here’s an extract of the report on the BBC.
“Even if all the stadia are air-conditioned, I think it will be impossible for the fans,” Dyke said.
“Just go out there and wander around in that sort of heat. I just don’t think it’s possible.”My position, and I suspect the FA’s position, will be: ‘You can’t play it in the summer.'”
I think the whole tournament is already dead-in-the-water and that it probably won’t take place in Qatar. If it does, it will be in fully-enclosed air-conditioned stadia, with virtually no spectators and absolutely no real fans or atmosphere.
Why Am I Watching An Empty Stadium?
I’m just watching the World Athletics Championships in Moscow on BBC Television.
But where are all the fans?
Surely, World Championship and Olympic events, should be given to countries, who’ll actually go to watch them!
The Anonymous Widower 