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.