A Funny Thing Happened at Football

Last night saw Crawley Town playing Swansea City in the Capital One Cup, which is the new name for what was the Carling Cup. Swansea have recently been promoted to the Premiership, which meant that it was a big game for Crawley. The ground was fairly full with 3500 football fans in attendance, 900 of whom were from Swansea. In all it was a very good turnout for a Tuesday evening, despite the rain. The record at the Broadfield Stadium is about 4500, which was achieved at our recent League 1 game against Portsmouth. Unfortunately we lost that game 0-3 and we had 2 player sent off. Not our finest 90 minutes by a long way.


The game itself was very close, with Crawley giving Swansea a real game. Our performance overall was surprisingly good compared with our recent performances and bearing in mind that Swansea are now a top flight team. The banter between our fans and theirs really made for a great atmosphere and we even managed to get the others in the West Stand singing, which is virtually unheard of. Chants of “Are We In A Library?” from away fans are not uncommon. Ultimately, the visitors beat us by 3 Goals to 2, their 3rd goal coming in the 90th minute, just as the 4th official held up the board to let us know there was 4 minute of injury time to play. Such is life.

At halftime, Chunky, Steve, Ray and a few others always gather around to discuss the first half game play and drink tea, eat biscuits, etc. This time however there was a new face in the group and it was someone I instantly recognised as my Supervisor when I was an Apprentice over 20 years ago. I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name, so I didn’t mention it. I later found out from Ray that his name was Brian and they worked together. After the game Ray re-introduced us and when I told him my name he instantly remembered me. It then became clear that I had also worked with one of the other guys in the group. I’ve been chatting with him for the last 3 or so years without realising. It just goes to prove that it’s a small world.


Regards



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Woosh goes time

The weather here in England has taken a turn for the worse and not for the first time this year. Last Autumn and Winter saw very little rain fall. The Spring was showing no sign of easing the problem either. Many areas of the country, including my corner of Sussex, had hosepipe bans applied. Water levels in our local resovouir (spell checker can't cope) were significantly lower than they should have been for the time of year.

Then the heavens opened and it seemed to rain endlessly for months. It wasn't until August that the Summer arrived. However, it only really lasted for 3 maybe 4 weeks.

Now September has arrived and the Autumn is back with a vengeance. The temperatures regularly fall below 10c and it won't stop raining. We've had it easy here in the South. Most of Northern England has been washed away. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to have your home full of muddy water. My heart goes out to those people affected and I pray it never happens to me.

All we have to look forward to now is the chill of Winter. It seems only yesterday that I felt the joy of seeing the first Daffodil of Spring.

posted from Bloggeroid

Twitter Phishing Scam

Last night I received a text message that appeared to be a direct message from a Twitter user I'd never hesrd of. The message claimed that someone on Twitter was "saying bad things about me" and I should follow the supplied link. I perhaps unwisely, decided to click on the link. It took me a Web page that looked like the Twitter login page, but for some reason the URL looked wrong. I decided to go no further and check my Twitter account via the phones app.

Basically someone was trying to steal my Twitter account. Goodness knows why, it's not like I'm someone of any great importance to the World. Lol.

Just watch out for this and other similar scams. They are very common and often very plausible. NEVER give out your bank details or PIN numbers in response to emails or phone callers who are supposedly from your bank. If in doubt call them back using a phone number from your card or bank statement, not a number you received by email or phone call. Always be suspicious

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/01/gone-phishing.html?m=1

Regards
Chris

posted from Bloggeroid

The Effects of Commuting

As a daily commuter, I have been a  approached by someone who has done some research into the mental and health effects of commuting to/from work. As you may have guessed, these effects are not positive ones. I therefore went off to check it out.


It was quite long and quite interesting, but sadly it's largely based on American figures and commuting by car, which of course I do not do. The art work is well thought through, clear, colourful and kept me amused for quite some time. Over all I think it's a very good and informative effort.


Here is the original graphic, which I have provided here with the authors permission.

Created by: College At Home



The link above will take you to the authors website. If you find it interesting and wish to extol its virtues, I'm sure they would love to hear from you.

Regards



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Joined Up Thinking....NOT!

The "Westminster Muppet Show" have surpassed themselves this week by causing the public to panic buy fuel. The media keep bombarding us with imagines of massive ques at petrol station up and down county.

Do the Government live in the same reality as the rest of us? Somehow I very much doubt it. They should have called for calm as there is not treat of fuel tanker drivers going on strike in the foreseeable future. Instead they advised people to keep their tanks full and even suggested that hoarding fuel at home is a good idea! The result has been wide spread panic which in it self will cause fuel shortages. Worse still a woman in York has managed to blow herself up trying to pour petrol from one container to another in her kitchen while cooking on a gas stove. She received 40% burns and has been admitted to a specialist burns unit, while her family home lays in charred ruins.

The only possible reason I can think of for the Governments ridiculous behaviour is to raise even more revenue from the much punished British car owners. Apparently the public purse has benefited from an extra £32m in fuel duty over the last 48 hours, due to all the extra fuel sold at the pumps.

Regards



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Come Play With Me

I have for a number of years been the proud owner of an XBox 360 and I often play on-line games via the XBox Live! service. Regularly I am sent emails informing me of new game releases and on the bottom of the latest one I noticed that they've attached an imagine of my Avatar.

It is actually quite a good likeness of me.

If any of you fancy a game of Gears of War (1,2 or 3) one evening, please look me up. My user name is "TRANCE-ELBOW".

See you soon 8-)



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Have Kindle, Will Read

This last Christmas my Wife and I bought each other eBook readers. We went for the new Kindle 4, which has no keyboard or touch screen. Although very basic, it is excellent value for money at only £89, it works very well and I am very impressed with the whole ebook reading experience. The screen is quite simple, but very clear in good light and unlike most tablets, is easy to read in bright sunlight.

I wasn't sure what I should read first and was disappointed to find out that not all of Robert Rankin's books are available for Kindle. I am reading his books in order of publication dates so as not be out of sequence, but so far I am about 10 years behind. This means that the next two books in the series have yet to be Kindled. In the hope that this situation is resolved soon. I decided to try Terry Pratchett's Disc World Series, which is about 40 books long and all of them available in Kindle format. The first is "The Colour of Magic". It's ok, but I'm having trouble getting into it and I can't really explain why. As a consequence I have read two other books since buying that one, both of which I have since finished without completing "The Colour of Magic". These books are,

• PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE: The Hilarious and Shocking Inside Story of British Policing - By Inspector Gadget

Inspector Gadget is the synonym of a serving Police Inspector in the British Police force. This book was written on the back of his quite famous Blog  , where he expresses his displeasure and exposes the lunatic why our Police Force is now run in the 21st century. A great read, but quite worrying at times. Read it, you WILL be shocked!

•    Stealth - By Gail Briggs

Stealth is Gail's first book and I was quite surprised just how good it is. I enjoyed the whole thing from cover to cover. If you like Fantasy/Supernatural stories, then Stealth is for you. I myself can't wait for her second book.


Regards



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You may be surprised to learn that I can actualy read!

When I started commuting to work by train, just over 20 years ago, I soon got bored with watching the world go past the window. I notice that other commuters were reading books, so I decided to give it a go.

I started off with Douglas Adams Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy and was immediately hooked. I initially read the four books in the Trilogy, but then moved on to his other works from the Dirk Gently series. Again, I was enthralled with these two excellent works. Unfortunately, Douglas was far from a prolific writer and having read all his works to date, I needed to find someone else's books to read.


When I was at school I remember reading Tolkens The Hobbit, so I decided to give that a go and I'm glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed being transported to another universe of Hobbits, Wizards, Goblins and the like. I followed this we the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In comparison to The  Hobbit, I was very disappointed. Midway through the second book I could stand no more and threw in the towel. Nearly 18 years on I still haven't felt the need to pick it up again, not even after seeing the films. Perhaps one day I may try again. Only time will tell.


I was in Glasgow in 1994 and while browsing in a cheap book shop I happened across a book by Robert Rankin, which caught my eye. It was just what I was looking for and his writing style very much reminded of the late Douglas Adams. I have been a fan ever since and have been reading his books in order for a number of years. I am about halfway through his works currently.

You may be thinking to yourself that I haven't read a great deal considering I've been at it for 20 years. The fact is that I am dyslexic and read very slowly. Maybe in another 20 years I may have caught up to date with Robert Rankin's books 8-)

Regards



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Best Christmas Present Ever

My Brother-in-Law's Girlfriend (Chunkette) did a wonderful thing today. She delivered a healthy baby girl to the world. Mother & baby are doing well. I am so over welmed with joy, you'd think she was my baby. I'm so looking forward to meeting her, hopefully later today.

She has come at a great time and she offers such hope for the future. My wife's family have suffered great loss over the past few years, with the loss of both their parents, a sister and an elder Brother (Dopy) who is trying to drink himself to an early grave. The new arrival has provided a huge injection of hope into our hearts and I feel it is our way of fighting back. A way to rebalance to family.

I am on such a high right now that nothing could bring me down today. It takes me back to the day my Son arrived and the amazing joy he gave me. That was the best day of my life and I doubt that anything will ever beat that feeling.

My best wishes, love & hope go to the three of them.

posted from Bloggeroid

Winter is Upon Us Once More

Over the last week, the temperatures have dropped a few degrees announcing that Winter is now upon us. The winds are now starting to bite, the days are getting noticeably shorter and the year is drawing to a close. This dark, dank weather will probably be with us until the end of February next year, by which time we will all be sick of it.Regards


I always look forward to the first signs of the Daffodils poking through the ground. This is the sign that the days will soon be warmer and the weather better. The first opening of those bright yellow trumpets chasing away the greys and browns of winter, lifts my heart and brings hope for the coming year.

In the mean time I will just have to put up with dismal days, low temperatures and gloom.





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