Jimmy update

He's back. He broke the catflap trying to escape again, but he's in and out of the house and knows where home is. So I can stop writing about him now.

Sheffield Wednesday 1 - Bristol Cities 0

In a moment of sheer and utter joy, reminiscent of Jonny's drop goal for England, my last match at Sheffield Wednesday before moving away was marked with an injury time winning goal for Graeme Lee. We were not confident - Bristol came into it top of the league after an 11-match winning streak, the Wednesday team was threadbare due to injury and we'd had that terrible game against Blackpool during the week - predictions were for a 2 or 3 goal whupping.

It wasn't the most beautiful game, but the Owls really wanted it, and it would have been unjust had we lost. A blatant handball penalty just before halftime was not seen by the terrible ref. Pie-munching Kevin Pressman showed true class with some cracking saves - one was premiership quality. Alan Quinn was at his pugilistic best, all over the field and the other players. 24,000 fans giving it their all. That's 9 points from 3 games, and we're now in 12th place, 6 points away from the playoffs. Who knows.......

Read about it here.

So, that's my last game this season. Last chicken balti pie. There are a few matches between South Africa and Brazil, but they collide with a short stop to Ireland and Eleanor's wedding, so no go. Perhaps Squizz will let me scab the odd season ticket seat next year...??

So long Sheffield...

So, Rachel and I have left Sheffield. Quite a strange day - packing, cleaning, showing 3 people round the house (hopefully it will be rented imminently)... Rach's mum picked her and the rest of our stuff up while I was at the football, leaving me only to vacuum, wash the floor, lock up and leave on my own, on foot, with a suitcase. Very strange.

I've had 10 very happy years in Sheffield, and I'll really miss it, particularly all my best friends. You know who you are :-)

I'm writing this from Scunthorpe, where Jim has thoughtfully installed wireless internet access. Civilisation prevails...

BYE BYE DESQ

3 years of e-learning making at desq has come to an end. Although there is a lot of excitement ahead, I'm really going to miss this job and everyone working there. It's been great, sniff, sniff...

Some snaps: here, here, and here.

Jimmy update

The little sod has escaped again! He got through a barely open window 6 feet off the ground. I'm not quite as worried as I was earlier in the week - if he didn't run away last time, he's unlikely to run away again, especially as Jim (Rachel's dad, Jimmy's new grandad) is putting food out for him. He obviously misses his master.

I'm going to miss working for desq...

particularly when faced with sights like this...

RIP Sheffield Wednesday...

LDV Vans Northern Final
Sheffield Wednesday 0 - Blackbool 2. Blackpool win 3-0 on aggregate, and go on to the LDV final at Cardiff's Millenium Stadium in March.

My penultimate match at Hillsborough before going to South Africa. Me, Squizz, Trace, Liz & John (now engaged - ahhh), Julia and 22,000 others turned up to see a total pile of crap. 20 minutes of early Owls pressure was soaked up by the Seasiders, who came back quickly with 2 very soft goals. The rest of the game was painful in the extreme, we came nowhere near looking like scoring. God knows what's going to happen against the Bristol Cities on Saturday.

What was even worse, was that they ran out of bloody chicken balti pies!

So: no goals; no quality; and NO PIE!

Watch this space after March 13th for a full match and stadium catering report on the Super 12 rugby match between the Stormers and Waratahs at Newlands Park, Cape Town.

buy an ipod!

Chris posted this from the register, about people with white ipod headphones getting mugged. I read a similar article yesterday on my favourite mac gossip page. I just use my old headphones, which sound better than the white bag of shite headphones which came with it.

The ipod is without a doubt the best gadget I've ever bought. Having 4000 songs on me all the time is lovely, with some great fun to be had when in full random mode - on my walk to work this morning I heard the following songs in sequence:

These days - Joy Division
Centrepeace - Badly Drawn Boy
Drown in my own tears - Jeff Buckley
Frank's theme - Tom Waits
2 up 2 down - Alfie

(I feel a new blog subsection coming on here).

Anyway, buy one from Apple UK.

the prodigal son returns...

We went back to Scunthorpe last night, with a plan to search for Jimmy all night. Rach had prepared some leaflets, we'd reported him lost to the local cat protection league, and we'd read lots of advice on the web, so we were all set.

Anyway, we pulled up outside the house, and I called his name on the off chance. Meow. Called again. Meow meow. And out of the garden came a thin and bedraggled Jimmy. All he needed was to hear a friendly voice... broke my heart...

Then we locked him up in the utility room for the night with Maggie and Lumpy Ermintrude.

We've lost Jimmy and I'm absolutely gutted

I'm very sad today. We moved all our stuff over to Scunthorpe yesterday, including the two cats. Maggie settled in immediately, but Jimmy was clearly really unhappy from the off. He kept on trying to find places to hide, and eventually disappeared. We left, assuming that he'd found a securehiding place somewhere inside, but it turns out today he's nowhere to be seen, so he must have gone out through the catflap. Maybe he'll turn up in the next few days. I really hope so.

So... Jimmy, you may be slighly gay, moult like a bastard and dribble, but you're the best cat I've ever had, and I hope if you don't come back soon that you've found a new home and that you will be OK.

Rushden 1 - Owls 2

We're flying high now

Up to 12th in the league, only 7 away from the playoffs.

Stats for the season so far

Just 2 more games before the off: the second leg of the LDV Vans Trophy northern final against Blackpool on Wednesday (where we have a 1 goal deficit from the away leg), and then my final home game against the mighty Bristol Cities. (arf arf).

stadium food... Balti Pie at Hillsborough.

MMMM, I'll miss these....

6 nations rugby - England team for Saturday

We're moving house this weekend. We reckon 3 van loads between Sheffield and Scunthorpe. What is non-negotiable is that we'll not be doing anything at 5.30 on Saturday when the match against Scotland in Edinburgh kicks off. Shame we're not able to be there!

Anyway, the team is here. The only change from Saturday's cruise past Italy (which was too easy to be an exciting game) is the Sale newbie Chris Jones starting in place of Joe Worsley. The attack of Balshaw, Lewsey, Greenwood, Robinson and Cohen looks pretty damn exciting to me. We should score 40 points unless the heavens open and the nightmare of 2000 happens again.

Wi-fi access at footy...

Spurs have implemented wi-fi access throughout White Hart Lane, so people can take their laptops to games to surf the net. Well, reporters maybe, and those lucky enough to have a wi-fi PDA.

I doubt this will be happening at Hillsborough anytime soon... unless Ken Bates buys us... we're 14th in the second division, so it must be tempting...

Owls 1 - Hartlepool 0 Owls 1 Hartlepool 0

A lucky win for the boys, thanks to a Ndumbu penalty, up to 13th in the league. Terrible game though. Trace and izzy left at half-time. Read all about it.

No photo today, still hoping to keep going on the pda, don't have ftp software yet, still battling with the details.

hi. I'm testing my PDA for writing my blog using avantblog.It seems to work OK. Just got to crack the input side of things... this has taken ages to write.

6 nations rugby

My favourite sporting tournament starts up again tomorrow, with England installed as 7-4 on favourites.



It's all live, where it should be, on the BBC. Fixture list. Official site.

To think I was worried about it being shown on South African TV... nothing to fear: they broadcast each match at least three times.

There were some rumours flying around that Sir Clive was going to move there to coach the Bokke. These were dismissed today - hardly surprising. They've just appointed Jake White, a former deputy of Nick Mallet, the manager responsible for the world record equalling run of 17 test wins. Guess who stopped them breaking the record?

Pikeycam - West Street, Sheffield

Was Jesus born in Sheffield this morning?

This pic doesn't really do it justice... but check out the sunbeam above the bus.

Technology - new PDA

I've got a new PDA - desq needed their old Palm Pilot back. (I'm sure it will get lots of use as it was sat on a desk gathering dust in the year before I took it over). I've bought the same as Tim, an HP IPAQ 4150, from this store.



Those of you who know me well might be surprised that I didn't get a Palm or a Sony Clio, considering they natively synchronise with Apple Macs. However, I went with Pocket PC for the easy wi-fi and bluetooth connectivity, and because this one was a bargain. If it becomes necessary, I'll get Pocketmac for 40 bucks, which looks quite good.

Good job I did. Palm, or PalmSource, or PalmOne, as they are now called, have announced that the latest version of PalmOs is dropping support for macs. Bastards.

The main task is to work out how to use the PDA and my T610 to update this blog using while I'm away in South Africa and Brazil...

Rugby news - England team announced...

... for Sunday's 6 nations game against Italy.

Considering Johnno's retirement, Jonny and others' injuries, and other omissions, it looks like a strong team - all drawn from the (winning!) world cup squad.

Although I rate Grayson, he is clearly a stopgap until others come back or get a bit older. I'm sure Ollie Barkley will be on the field as soon as the game is won. And Jason Leonard has quietly made it onto the bench, again - good on the old fella!

Apologies to any non-English readers if I sound arrogant about winning this game... but it is Italy after all, and let there be no mistake - we've got some very tough matches ahead this year - Wales, Ireland, France are all capable of beating us, and the Kiwis will be itching to hammer us in the the Summer.

I hope the six nations is on TV in South Africa...

Snow-tow mishap video

from Chris's site, here's a very funny video.

Christopher-Hill dot com

Chris's site has undergone a nice little redesign. The first of us lot to start blogging, his has always been a good read, with links to all sorts of stuff including cool flash, photography and a little bit of politics.

By the way, I'm going to buy my Talisker later this week, tasting session at my place next week.

Movies - Bond 21

Britney to be a bond girl? Surely not. Nice work if you can get it, but Pearce Brosnan, 63, (ok that might be an exaggeration), already looked a bit of a dirty old man copping off with Dr Christmas Jones, and that was two films ago!

Maybe they're harking back to the classic Roger Moore days:

Exhibit A: For Your Eyes Only - Bibi, the slut ice-skater...

Exhibit B: Even worse, the shower scene in View To A Kill...

Port Vale 3-0 Sheff Wed

Thank god this was an away match so we didn't have to witness it. Fatty Proudlock sent off, down to 17th in the table, only 7 points above the relegation zone. GULP.

Home game v Hartlepool on Saturday, but I might give it a miss - not only does it collide with the start of the Six Nations, but I'd have to travel down in Squizz's new Jeep Wrangler which might make us look like a gay couple. Which I assure you we're not.

Music - Esbjorn Svensson Trio

Fantastic gig at the Buxton Opera House with Rach, Squizz and Trace. Great rhythms, great tunes, great playing, able to mix accessibilty with intensity, effortlessly.



EST's homepage here. Get on amazon and buy some. 'Seven days of Falling' and 'Strange place for snow' highly recommended.

Rugby news

Clive Woodward (sorry... Sir Clive Woodward) is set to lead the Lions tour to New Zealand next Summer. Read all about it!

updated...

Why dour old Kiwi Graham Henry coached the Lions 3 years ago will remain a mystery to me.

By the way... did you know that England won the world cup?

Movies - Van Helsing

Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman teaming up against Wolverine pretending to be Peter Cushing! Top quality viewing, coming to a cinema near you this Summer. Trailer here.

crazy flash...

plug your headphones in and watch this baby!

Pikeycam - Fargate, Sheffield

shop in Edinburgh

do you see what they've done there...?

Owls 1 - Wycombe 1

Dear, oh dear.

This photo of Squizz (celebrating fatty Proudlock's goal scored from Terry Cooke's cross) reminds me of a Munch painting.

NEW FEATURE! Food at sport

Thanks to Nick West for this photo of a meat pie at Hillsborough on Friday night.