It was a game of two halves. My the other side looked big and butch. And we could have been 6-0 up by half time. I was one of the miscreants missing a header that by rights I should have put in the net.
On the upside...for there must always be an upside....I set up the first goal or was it the second? Whichever it was what really counts is the beauty of the pass. A thing of such rare beauty from my right boot that I was deeply pleased that it was dispatched into the goal for that was the finish worthy of the pass.
Strangely enough the opposition were a lot better in the second half when they got rid of their player who was able to go past three or four people. Very annoying playing against someone who you can't actually tackle so skilful are they.
When he went off they were a lot better. As if they were relying on him to do the damage.
It reminded me a bit of playing football at primary school. We had someone who was so good that he never got tackled to the point where it wasn't fair. Chris Hardy was his name and he lived with his mum in Dahomey Rd. A feral boy was he and I wonder what became of him.
Anyway we won 4-2 and it was a bit hands to the decks in the second half. It wasn't pretty but that was probably because we lost one of our ball holders to a thigh strain and I sacrificed my attacking tendencies to man the pumps in defence.
Work seemed quite ordinary after all that. But it was action packed with the world cup qualifiers. England managed to get past Kazakhstan and Franc danced with defeat but came from 2-0 down to draw in Roumainia.
It is not over until the final whistle.
Oh how I love a cliche.
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Friday, 10 October 2008
Matchday III
I thought that if I referred to the Saturday matches in such a way as Matchday, it would imbue the game with the titanic properties habitually associated with the UEFA Champions League
But will it bring out gigantic performances. One of the pre match shouts is 'enorme'. And no it's not sexually fixated middle aged men hankering for more time in bed with their spouses but the word to describe stunning athletic feats.
Needless to say the word is bandied about in the warm-up but rarely features once the match is underway.
I went to relaxation class tonight and am hoping for another transcendental experience on the pitch. But I won't be closing my eyes and recantin: "om".
On a more serious not the boy has been wonderful in the mornings of late. I have for the past two days deposited him at creche without a wailing and flailing.
If anything the dramatic bawling of the past few weeks has been replaced by a wry grin which says: "Those last few weeks were just a show to outline my thespian tendencies."
The assistants at the creche told me the weeping lasted for about 25 seconds until I was out of earshot.
Enorme.
Which is actually the word to describe the basketballers I saw at Bercy on Thursday night. The Miami Heat and the New Jersey Nets went into overtime before the Nets prevailed 100-98.
Never been to a basketball match before. The cheerleaders, the crowd, the glitterati and the teams. A potent mix. It was indeed enorme but not big and captivating enough to make me seek out the basketball veterans league.
I have enough difficulty kicking a ball into the net let alone throwing one into a very small one.
I think I prefer it big.
But will it bring out gigantic performances. One of the pre match shouts is 'enorme'. And no it's not sexually fixated middle aged men hankering for more time in bed with their spouses but the word to describe stunning athletic feats.
Needless to say the word is bandied about in the warm-up but rarely features once the match is underway.
I went to relaxation class tonight and am hoping for another transcendental experience on the pitch. But I won't be closing my eyes and recantin: "om".
On a more serious not the boy has been wonderful in the mornings of late. I have for the past two days deposited him at creche without a wailing and flailing.
If anything the dramatic bawling of the past few weeks has been replaced by a wry grin which says: "Those last few weeks were just a show to outline my thespian tendencies."
The assistants at the creche told me the weeping lasted for about 25 seconds until I was out of earshot.
Enorme.
Which is actually the word to describe the basketballers I saw at Bercy on Thursday night. The Miami Heat and the New Jersey Nets went into overtime before the Nets prevailed 100-98.
Never been to a basketball match before. The cheerleaders, the crowd, the glitterati and the teams. A potent mix. It was indeed enorme but not big and captivating enough to make me seek out the basketball veterans league.
I have enough difficulty kicking a ball into the net let alone throwing one into a very small one.
I think I prefer it big.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
The Franchise
The NBA is in town and I've got myself accredited to go and watch the Miami Heat take on the New Jersey Nets at Bercy on Thursday night.
I was at a practice session today watching the lithe young men manipulate a basketball. All very astounding. But like anything you've got to work and work again.
So I must persevere with the tennis lessons. After the first one on Tuesday, I felt as if there had been no huge revelation but maybe that's it. There's not supposed to be anything like that.
Will have to wait and see.
Now while the world is melting down and we're broaching the death of capitalism and the end of the United States as a superpower, I have been wondering what music to put at the start of the Sports Insight magazine at the radio station.
It is not easy. Things that I would want to use from TC's Space Music podcast or the Fresh Air lounge series is not really sporty, it's more downtempo chillout for after sports.
I'm due to record the programme on Friday or Saturday and what with the busy schedule of watching NBA stars, playing football myself and working, there's not much time to listen to music.
Perhaps the Eurostar journey on Sunday afternoon will provide me with the decent chance.
During the twilight hours this morning, I was wriggled out of bed by the boy, so I came to sleep on the sofa and listen to the radio, I slept undisturbed for a few hours before the middle child decided to come and grace me with her presence.
There was some truncated conversation about not wetting her bed but wetting the night shorts. I didn't want to get into the details as I might have really woken up.
A financial forecaster was interviewed on the BBC World Service and he said he'd seen all this coming but his regret was that he'd said so far too early. While on the hand he was happy to have been proved right - since that's his raison d'etre as a forecaster, on the other hand no-one listened.
I didn't know such things existed. But I could have guessed as they have trend predictors who tell us that black will be the new black.
Bust banks are the new black. Anyway the forecaster, Roger Bootle, said there'd be an intellectual malaise as a result of all this downturn and that's where I fell asleep.
One morning during the World Service haze, they interviewed a psychiatrist who said that trips to the clinic are usually seen as a luxury adjunct and they were all starting to worry about gloomy times ahead - so to speak.
But far from it, the bust means boom time for the shrinks as all kinds of psychological issues are now emerging.
So you spend your last few thousand dollars going to a person who says no, you're not going crazy, it's the system going kinetic that you've been propping up for the last few years.
Well the shrinks have got onto a winner on this one. Me? I can't even afford the time to find music for a radio magazine so I'm hardly likely to trip hop off to the Freudian headhunters.
But for some reason I picked out Star Wars from the DVD library. Episode IV - A New Hope.
I was at a practice session today watching the lithe young men manipulate a basketball. All very astounding. But like anything you've got to work and work again.
So I must persevere with the tennis lessons. After the first one on Tuesday, I felt as if there had been no huge revelation but maybe that's it. There's not supposed to be anything like that.
Will have to wait and see.
Now while the world is melting down and we're broaching the death of capitalism and the end of the United States as a superpower, I have been wondering what music to put at the start of the Sports Insight magazine at the radio station.
It is not easy. Things that I would want to use from TC's Space Music podcast or the Fresh Air lounge series is not really sporty, it's more downtempo chillout for after sports.
I'm due to record the programme on Friday or Saturday and what with the busy schedule of watching NBA stars, playing football myself and working, there's not much time to listen to music.
Perhaps the Eurostar journey on Sunday afternoon will provide me with the decent chance.
During the twilight hours this morning, I was wriggled out of bed by the boy, so I came to sleep on the sofa and listen to the radio, I slept undisturbed for a few hours before the middle child decided to come and grace me with her presence.
There was some truncated conversation about not wetting her bed but wetting the night shorts. I didn't want to get into the details as I might have really woken up.
A financial forecaster was interviewed on the BBC World Service and he said he'd seen all this coming but his regret was that he'd said so far too early. While on the hand he was happy to have been proved right - since that's his raison d'etre as a forecaster, on the other hand no-one listened.
I didn't know such things existed. But I could have guessed as they have trend predictors who tell us that black will be the new black.
Bust banks are the new black. Anyway the forecaster, Roger Bootle, said there'd be an intellectual malaise as a result of all this downturn and that's where I fell asleep.
One morning during the World Service haze, they interviewed a psychiatrist who said that trips to the clinic are usually seen as a luxury adjunct and they were all starting to worry about gloomy times ahead - so to speak.
But far from it, the bust means boom time for the shrinks as all kinds of psychological issues are now emerging.
So you spend your last few thousand dollars going to a person who says no, you're not going crazy, it's the system going kinetic that you've been propping up for the last few years.
Well the shrinks have got onto a winner on this one. Me? I can't even afford the time to find music for a radio magazine so I'm hardly likely to trip hop off to the Freudian headhunters.
But for some reason I picked out Star Wars from the DVD library. Episode IV - A New Hope.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
The School Trip II
The school trip finished with all 27 children back at school. Have to say it was more luck than design.
They went up and down the Champs Elysees trying to do some orienteering exercise involving compasses or GPS.
The children were prodding, pulling, hugging, fighting and generally not really listening to the ladies who were supposed to be helping them.
I was exhausted at the end of the trip. Trying to supervise them was madness amid the raging traffic. Ambitious idea for a trip. Didn't quite work.
They went up and down the Champs Elysees trying to do some orienteering exercise involving compasses or GPS.
The children were prodding, pulling, hugging, fighting and generally not really listening to the ladies who were supposed to be helping them.
I was exhausted at the end of the trip. Trying to supervise them was madness amid the raging traffic. Ambitious idea for a trip. Didn't quite work.
Monday, 6 October 2008
The School Trip
Haven't been on one of these since ages ago. Then it was going to the town hall to do some pottery thing. This time we're going to Concorde to see some kind of plane.
I've been told to provide two metro tickets for the eldest. She is going through the phase of saying: "La Honte" because that's what they're all worried about at school. Embarrassment. In a few years it will be all about respect and presumably they'll all be getting knives or guns out and slashing or shooting each other over perceived lax of risspekt.
I fear for the youth. I fear for us all. There is a global crisis on. Capitalism just used to be a way of life. I think I heard during the night on the World Service that this crisis could be the end of the USA as we know or understand it.
But another analyst said the country was too robust for that.
All roads lead to China.
I've been told to provide two metro tickets for the eldest. She is going through the phase of saying: "La Honte" because that's what they're all worried about at school. Embarrassment. In a few years it will be all about respect and presumably they'll all be getting knives or guns out and slashing or shooting each other over perceived lax of risspekt.
I fear for the youth. I fear for us all. There is a global crisis on. Capitalism just used to be a way of life. I think I heard during the night on the World Service that this crisis could be the end of the USA as we know or understand it.
But another analyst said the country was too robust for that.
All roads lead to China.
Saturday, 4 October 2008
The First Loss
Well the same old frailties emerged. The inability to hold a lead and deeply dodgy goalkeeping. That accounted for three goals in a 5-4 defeat.
So it's one win and one loss.
I thought a draw would have been a fairer result. But the referee was a bit odd. The opposition had a couple of player who were quite robust in that they kept fouling. And it wasn't until the sixth or seventh offence that the ref sent one of them off into the five minute sin bin.
One of them who was allowed to stay on hit the goal to send them 5-3 up. No justice really. But when did football and equity ever go together?
Other problem was that there were 16 players and that in my experience never brings a result. And so it was today. Too much shuffling and no patterns of consistency.
Last week we were barely 12 and won. This week we were 16 and lost. Maybe there's a moral there.
Spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing with the boy. The eldest had a party in the park to attend and so we went to that at about 4pm. Her complaint was that she was taken there too late and all the sweets had gone.
No bad thing in my book. Quite why you would stage a birthday party in the park from 1pm until 6pm and had out sweets beats me.
Fruit I can understand. But sweets? Well at least they can run off the sugar rush.
I started to get the onset of the down phase once we were back home. But I nipped that in the bud at supper time.
Me and the missus went out with a Rhode Island connection who is passing through Paris and although it is the Nuit Blanche - galleries and the like are open all night - I'm closing up shop at the same time as usual.
Routine is the key.
It's the all night ex
So it's one win and one loss.
I thought a draw would have been a fairer result. But the referee was a bit odd. The opposition had a couple of player who were quite robust in that they kept fouling. And it wasn't until the sixth or seventh offence that the ref sent one of them off into the five minute sin bin.
One of them who was allowed to stay on hit the goal to send them 5-3 up. No justice really. But when did football and equity ever go together?
Other problem was that there were 16 players and that in my experience never brings a result. And so it was today. Too much shuffling and no patterns of consistency.
Last week we were barely 12 and won. This week we were 16 and lost. Maybe there's a moral there.
Spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing with the boy. The eldest had a party in the park to attend and so we went to that at about 4pm. Her complaint was that she was taken there too late and all the sweets had gone.
No bad thing in my book. Quite why you would stage a birthday party in the park from 1pm until 6pm and had out sweets beats me.
Fruit I can understand. But sweets? Well at least they can run off the sugar rush.
I started to get the onset of the down phase once we were back home. But I nipped that in the bud at supper time.
Me and the missus went out with a Rhode Island connection who is passing through Paris and although it is the Nuit Blanche - galleries and the like are open all night - I'm closing up shop at the same time as usual.
Routine is the key.
It's the all night ex
Friday, 3 October 2008
The Matchday II
I am not expecting a yoga goal this week. Mainly because I haven't been to yoga this week. I was going to go to the Friday relaxation class but the missus suggested I stay in and help prepare for the arrival of a guest from America.
The compromise was that I do some movements in the dining room while the brood watched some Japanese animé thing. It was difficult to get into the zone with the noise of endangered children belching out from the television.
But at least I was going through some motions. Not as perfect as I would have desired but it was the thing to do.
Besides there are about 14 players on the roster for tomorrow at Aubervilliers. In my experience we usually lose when there are that number. So I might just go along to support in my tracksuit and play only when someone is exhausted. That is very selfless of me.
Maybe the yoga is affecting my body and mind. Ah by not going I have gone.
Indeed the space is calling me.
The compromise was that I do some movements in the dining room while the brood watched some Japanese animé thing. It was difficult to get into the zone with the noise of endangered children belching out from the television.
But at least I was going through some motions. Not as perfect as I would have desired but it was the thing to do.
Besides there are about 14 players on the roster for tomorrow at Aubervilliers. In my experience we usually lose when there are that number. So I might just go along to support in my tracksuit and play only when someone is exhausted. That is very selfless of me.
Maybe the yoga is affecting my body and mind. Ah by not going I have gone.
Indeed the space is calling me.
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