1st September 1980. A Day to Remember

Thirty years ago something happened that changed the life of a little boy who was a week away from his 3rd birthday...his sister was born.

Carla Ruth Malcolm was born at West Middlesex Hospital on Monday 1st September.  She was late, although just a week compared to my two, and she brought with her a book and a lollipop as a welcome gift for her new older brother.  The book is still on a bookshelf at mum and dad's, the lolly didn't last very long ;)

Mum and dad had a new daughter, I had a new sister and nan had a new granddaughter.  A whole world of fun was about to begin.



I can't really remember life without my sister, but it can't have been half as much fun as it has been since.  She was an instant playmate as well as someone to look after and care for.  Like any siblings we've had our moments but nothing has ever come between us and we're still great friends.

Family holidays in England, Ireland and as we got older abroad were exciting and action packed.  Be it charging around, playing games or splashing in the pool, the pair of us kept each other company doing all the things that brothers and sisters do.

We're very different and at the same time very similar.  If she reads this she'll most likely think I'm a soft prat.  To be fair if she wrote something like this I'd think the same!

It's no great surprise that we went to the same the same primary and secondary schools or that we both did geography at Uni.  There are differences though most of which have become apparent as we've grown older.


She's had an annual cinema pass for a number of years whereas I've had a Brentford season ticket!  Geeks in different ways!

A better example is the fact that I can't stand going to the cinema and much prefer going to gigs.  I'd much rather be stood in amongst a buzzing crowd with a beer than sat quietly in a cinema watching the latest blockbuster.  Carla can't stand the jostling, I love it.

She still lives at home but I flew the nest less than six months after finishing Uni and coming back to London.

I've worked for the same company since graduating in 2000 but Carla has never wanted to join the Monday to Friday rat race.  She spent a year in Canada in 2002/03 and a year Down Under in 2005/06.  I've only had a couple of three or four week holidays!

She has just completed a masters in Countryside Management at Capel Manor and spends a lot of her time volunteering.  Puts me to shame really as I'm your typical office bod who turns up late, most likely doesn't work as hard as he should and spends too much time on the pop!

Still, we're family and that's all that really matters.  Carla, I'll have a few Guinness for you after work on Friday surely you can't begrudge a little celebration on your behalf ;)

Happy Birthday little sis.  Here's to 30 great years and all things being equal, 30 more. 

You are my Brentford, my only Brentford...

Considering the 2010/11 season is almost three weeks old I haven't blogged much about Brentford. Truth be told there hasn't been much to shout about. An opening day defeat at Carlisle was followed a week later by Walsall at GP and yep, another defeat.

In between those two games we did manage edge past Cheltenham in the League, OK, Carling Cup. We'd not beaten them in five previous attempts so it was good to finally beat the relative newcomers to the Football League.

Last weekend we took a good point away from Swindon Town's County Ground. We lost 3-1 home and away to them last season so it was a decent point and our League campaign is up and running.

We drew Hull City in the second round of the Carling Cup, and as you can tell, I was really looking forward to them coming down to Griffin Park!  The reason for my total lack of enthusiasm for a game against a team newly relegated from the Premiership was (and still is) because for the 1990's and first half of the 20th century, Brentford were a better team than them and it's hard to get away from that way of thinking.

I still find it hard, as do most Bees fans I reckon, to think of Fulham, Stoke and particularly Wigan as established Premiership teams.  Recent Brentford history shows we've been better than all of them but have never grabbed the opportunities when they've presented themselves.  A terrible play-off record, including Wembley (loads of quality in that 1997 Crewe team) and Millennium Stadium (shit that Brentford team was good) defeats, have poured cold water over promotion hopes at regular intervals and led to the dismantling of many a team well equipped to play in the second tier.  Relegation to the basement in May 2007 (although it was on the cards months before the dreaded final day of the season) hit the club hard but there is renewed optimism around the club since bouncing back from our two season stint in League Two in May 2009.

A great ninth place finish in League One last season has led to major investment in the playing squad over the summer and we appear to be in a position to have a real go at promotion over the next two or three seasons.  Of course, with investment comes expectation and the GPG was awash with negativity following our two defeats.  The point at Swindon has helped to ally some fears and this is where (eventually) Hull City come in.

On Tuesday we had a great result.  A 2-1 win (Bees view, Hull view) and a place in the third round for the first time since 1991.  All of a sudden the negativity has been replaced with a renewed confidence that we have what it takes to push on into (at least) the top six.  Oh the fragile and fickle mind of a football fan, what a world we inhabit!

Fingers crossed we get a decent draw, a winnable home or top Prem team away will do.  Most fans will echo this list of teams that we want to draw and those we want to avoid.  Any takers for Wigan away?  It's bound to be them now isn't it!?! 

Saturday sees Rochdale, bloody hell even they've got executive boxes, in TW8.  They are in the third tier for the first time since the 1973/74 season, 36 long long years ago, having finished last season in the final automatic promotion spot from League Two.  So far they've drawn two and lost one in the league so they've had a better start than us!  They've also won on their last two trips to GP so I'll be heading to GP a little nervous but expecting a win.

Three points on Saturday and we'll be cooking on gas.  YOU REDS!

Two in 24 Hours!

You wait a week for a blog update and then two come along in 24 hours!

The foxes are at it again and Sarah's just piped up to say that they are quicker than me, charming!  She's gone downstairs now to flood the bathroom again!

We've just watched another episode of Minder!  I've got the V+ box set to record the series so we have a seemingly never ending supply of episodes to watch.

Today's episode, Back in Good Old England, was the twelfth from the third series (not season!) according to the great minder.org.  More often than not Minder episodes are a who's who of British TV.  Today's episode featured Norman Beaton who is better known as Desmond from the classic late '80s early '90s comedy Desmond's, check out on-demand episodes on SeeSaw, and Pete Postlethwaite the great stalwart of British film and television.

My Spanish classes finished at the end of the school term so I'm loving having Wednesday nights free.  Finishing work at half five and getting home before six is a rare luxury and one I could get used to :)  It's just gone 22:00 and it feels like I've been at home for ages.

Talking (well, writing if we're splitting hairs) of Wednesdays, Sarah's brother is a helicopter engineer in the RAF and last Wednesday we went down to RAF Odiham for their annual family day.  I've not got much interest in things military but it was a really good day.  Sarah's parents came down from Bury so we all had a good look around the base, watched planes and helicopters buzzing around and then watched a gig put on by men and women stationed at the base.  Sarah's brother was in the second band and having been taught to play by their dad, the old boy was chuffed ;)

Oooh, just seen that Nick Clegg was in the the Bush today to launch the coalition's vision for social mobility.  Shame he chose Shepherd's Bush Village hall as the venue because the Tory council want to close and flog the building!  It's always good to see MPs getting some stick and by the sounds of it this was a pretty feisty photo call for the deputy Prime Minister.  More details here.

Sorry, where was I. Oh yeah, last Wednesday.  After the gig we all went for a meal in a local country pub which always gets me thinking.  As much as I love London, there is something special about going to a country pub for a few (too many) beers and some top notch grub.  This place didn't disappoint but did leave me and Sarah with a dash for the last train from Hook and a ride on the 295 from Clapham Junction back to W12.

A night on the beers certainly wasn't the best way to prepare for the 2010 edition of the Superstars Decathlon!

Last Thursday and Friday saw 16, erm, 'athletes' compete in the third decathlon at Battersea Park Arena.  I was pretty confident of a decent showing after somehow landing second place last year but this time round I was well below par.  My day two performance wasn't helped by the evil mozzie bites I received on the first day, my left leg took on an elephant-like appearance, but it was my disastrous showing in a couple of less the less traditional events that helped seal my mediocrity.

The final event for the previous two years was a dance off in Clapham Junctions so called 'Premier Nightspot' Wessex House, don't be fooled, it's shit!

This year however we had karaoke to add one final insult to the injury!  It wasn't a case of just getting on the mike and singing a song of choice, oh no, that would be too easy!  We were each given an artist and song with strict instructions that appearance was just as important as vocal performance.

I drew Pink and her song Get the Party Started which as it turned out was an OK draw although not as cushy as Sarah who was given Franz Ferdinand.

We all got changed at the arena and then headed to find some taxis, not an easy task for 16 people dressed in various levels of drag and in the end we hopped on the bus!  Sorry to all the poor commuters on the number 44, still, we must have livened up an otherwise dull journey.

Now for the moment I know you've all been waiting for...me as Pink.

Not a great resemblance but nature didn't really offer me much of a chance this time round!  For more of the same have a look at this Picasa album.

Right, I reckon it's time to say goodbye after that photo!

Time to watch game two of the Giants' three game road trip in Philadelphia.

Lifelong Learning

Thought I'd get in a quick post tonight while I wait for Sarah to get in from work.

She's busy writing the critical analysis component of her final APC submission and is entering the final furlong of the graduate scheme she's been on since September 2008.

It's been so far so good because she's already passed the Postgraduate Diploma in Real Estate that she went to South bank Uni once a week to study and received welcome pay rise.  Fingers crossed there will be more to come come the end of October.

I've often thought that I'd like to get back into education.  I'm going to keep on with the Spanish and sign up again for another year in September, but sometimes I wonder if I should jack in the job and do a GIS masters.  Birkbeck Uni offer a part-time course which is an option but I don't know if I'd be able to handle working and then having to study in the evening.  It's hard enough trying to motivate myself to do a few pages Spanish homework and I've got a verb drill book that I haven't opened in 18 months!!

Then there is the cost.  Sarah's course has been paid for by her work as part of the graduate scheme she's on, are there employers out there that would pay for a 32 year old to go back to Uni for two years?  Maybe there are and I've just not been looking hard enough, it's tough to find the motivation after 10 years at the same company!

Anyway, enough of all that.  We've started to look for somewhere head off to for our winter long weekend away.  At the moment Prague looks to be the favourite and we might even be able to drag my best mate Dan and his wife along with us.



Last year we went to Montreal and we've been to Iceland and Cologne in previous years.  Sarah did have an eye on New York but I seem to have been able to fend off that idea ;)

I like to make it to one new country a year and I've not been to the Czech Republic before so Prague will tick off another country.  Saying that we did fly into and out of Geneva when we went skiing but I don't think I can really count a couple of hours in an airport as 'doing' Switzerland!

If we do book the trip with Dan and Jen Prague it's bound to be a great weekend away.  When they come down to London or we head up their way we always have decent weekends.  Beers, wine and good food are always top of the agenda and now that there's a Jamie's Italian in Westfield we can even have a rivalry with their nearest branch in Oxford!

On the subject of Westfield I've just seen an item on BBC London about the possibility of courts opening up in empty premises in said shopping centre and others around the country.  Is it a coincidence that this has been proposed the day Brentford's #1 blogger rocks up there with his accomplice, Robin Hood, in tow?  Rob from the rich and give to the poor wasn't it?!?

Only joking lads ;)

It's All Kicking Off Again

For the 72 teams of the Football League, the football season kicked-off last Saturday. The tarts in the Premiership start their season this weekend.

For the second season in a row Brentford started with an away game at Brunton Park.  Sadly there was no repeat of last season's 3-1 win with the Bees going down 2-0 in a dismal performance.

 Tonight attention has turned to the League Cup and we're playing at GP against Cheltenham Town.  It's 2-1 at the moment and I'm listening to the Bees World commentary.  It's been pretty crap since half time with the Robins having got a goal back and seemingly bossing the play.  After such a dominant first half performance it's looks like were going to be holding on for the last quarter of an hour!

After England's piss-poor showing at the World Cup (there's even a crap friendly tomorrow night!) and the inevitable slating of the apparent 'cream' of English football it's great to have the Bees back playing week in week out.  Last season we finished 9th, a great showing in our first season back in League One after a couple in the basement, and this season we look well equipped to make a decent push for the play-offs.  Not that Bees fans will be looking forward to that, we've got a dismal record in the end of season lottery!

It's Walsall at GP on Saturday and I can't wait to get back amongst the usual faces.  There's even a new Bees fan, Paul and Lynda had a baby boy just over a month ago and he's already looking good in his Brentford romper suit :)

My last blog post was about the Brits at the European Athletics in Barcelona.  Turned out to be a very good championships with plenty of great British performances :)  Mo Farah did the 5,000m 10,000m double, super Jess won her heptathlon gold (although it was closer than a lot of people expected), Andy Turner took gold in the 110m high hurdles and Phillips Idowu won long jump gold.  We even managed to dominate a couple of events with two British 1-2's.  Chris Thompson took silver behind Mo in the 10,000m with Dai Greene and Rhys Williams taking the top two podium places in the 400m hurdles.

To many people's surprise, Sarah said he didn't even deserve to be in the final, Mark Lewis-Francis took silver in the 100m and there were plenty of other good performances which the BBC have done a good job of summing up here and in Tom Fordyce's blog here.  The two 4x100m relay disasters didn't happen, right ;)

Last week myself and Sarah were in Rhodes for leisurely weeks holiday so she missed the final two days of competition.  The V+ box came to the rescue again and she was straight into the living room to watch the recorded coverage as soon as we got back to the flat on Sunday at 06:45!  If this isn't the behaviour of a total athletics geek I don't know what is!  I had a few hours kip like any normal person would!

The temperature was around 40°C for the whole week so we didn't do much during the day.  We had a self catering apartment in the chilled out and very well run Cosmos Maris complex close to Lardos Beach so stayed around there during the day and then headed out for dinner in the evening.

Lardos was the nearest town, about a 25 minute walk away, so we went there most nights.  We did have a night in Pefkos and also one in Lindos but Lardos was much more convenient and a lot better value.

We finally ventured out last Friday (ooooh, just realised this Friday is Friday 13th!!), to the large waterpark near Faliraki ;)  I'd not been to one since a school trip to the Ardèche in my second year at St. Mark's and I wasn't all that keen to go.  To tell the truth I was a bit nervous.

After a gentle introduction on a few of the tamest slides we started to move on to the more daunting attractions.  I actually think we went on the worst ride quite early in the day.

The 'Sting Ray' has a really steep drop-in which only becomes apparent once you've sat down on the ring and given yourself the heave-ho on the railings and by that time it's way too late anyway.  I've found this on YouTube:



It probably doesn't do the drop-in justice but it is pretty scary the first time.

I'd also never been on the steep slides before but after a bit of persuasion from Sarah I took the plunge.

From left to right are the Turbo Slide, Kamikaze and Free-fall.  Your brain tells you that Free-fall is the worst because it is a steep, straight drop but I thought the Turbo Slide was the worst.

After going  over two humps in quick succession you end up airborne for a split second before going into a tight curve.

The Kamikaze has just one hump which again sends you airborne for a short while but you're soon down the steep part of the slide and heading horizontally to the plunge pool at the bottom.

Although it doesn't look it, the Free-fall slide is the easiest ride.  Like the Sring-Ray it's the view from the top that is daunting and after that it's just straight down to the horizontal final few metres.

My advice, don't look down...

If you've made it this far you'll no doubt be glad to hear that Brentford held on to their 2-1 lead to book their first appearance in the second round of the League Cup for three seasons.

Here's hoping for a decent draw when it's made.

Going For Gold

No, not the classic pan-Europe general knowledge quiz show that ran on the BBC for many a year, but the GB (and NI) athletics team at the European Championships that began today in Barcelona.

In fact we've already had a great start to the championships with a 1-2 in the 10,000m.  Mo Farah claimed the gold, four years after collecting a silver in the 5,000m at a rain-soaked championships in Gothenburg, and Chris Thompson (I can see his Wikipedia page expanding a bit over the next few weeks!) took second place and with it the silver.

Sarah is a total athletics geek and spends many an hour watching YouTube videos while looking up historical reults on Wikepedia so I've had to set the V+ box to record almost six hours off BBC coverage each day this week.  She's catching up on this mornings action (Sarah, it's only bloody qualifying heats!!) while I write this and won't appreciate my Sarah is a geek chat!  Ahhh well.

Team GB should have a decent chance in a number of events.  For the men, Phillips Idowu should claim gold in the triple jump and naughty drugs cheat Dwain Chambers should be first over the line in the 100m.  Hopefully Martyn Rooney won't disappoint in the 400m and Dai Greene has a decent chance in the 400m hurdles.

The scrummy Jessica Ennis is a shoe-in for Heptathlon gold and other women with a decent chance of gold are Jenny Meadows in the 800m and Lisa Dobriskey in the 1500m.

If all those come in Charles Van Commenee will be in line for a fat bonus!

The Olympic Stadium has had a lick of paint since I saw it at the end of January.  The track has been relayed and is now blue and the grass on the field looks in a much better state.

This is how it looked six months ago:



And this is how it looks now:

Quite a difference!!

Away from the action in Barcelona, some wise old owl has decided to hold the championships every two years going forward.  This means that the next championships will finish just 26 days before the start of the 2012 Olympics.  Seems a bit of a silly idea to me and one that will surely lead to the devaluing of future championships, especially the ones that fall in Olympic years.

In London today there was an Olympic countdown event because the games will begin two years today.  The 2012 Olympic Stadium seems destined to become a football ground which for me is a real shame.

There is a lot of hot air being spouted about the legacy of the 2012 Games.  As far as I'm concerned one of the major legacies of London 2012 should be a world class athletics stadium in the capital of England.  I don't want West Ham or Spurs to get a new ground on the cheap and I don't want London to be left with another multi-use stadium that has constant pitch problems!  Saying that, the Stade de France seems to be able to cope with football, rugby and athletics so perhaps all would not be lost if the stadium did host multiple sports.

On a more positive note, looking at the photos of the countdown event we are going to have two cracking 2012 legacies.  The aquatics centre and velodrome are going to be world class venues for many years to come.



The velodrome looks quality with a year of work still to go.

Buckle Up for the Finish of La Grande Boucle

Ever since it's 1986 debut on Channel 4 I've been obsessed with the Tour de France.

Robert Millar, Shaun Kelly and Stephen Roche were taking the fight to the European cycling elite while Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen provided the commentary and insight into 190 riders on a  3,000km journey around France.

The original opening theme to the C4 highlights programme is a classic and instantly takes me back to July evenings lying on the sofa watching the best cyclists in the world battle each other across vast and varied French landscapes.























My favourite stages are those that take the peloton over the Alps and Pyrenees.  Tough mountain stages often prove cruicial and basically it's simple, if you can't climb, you can't win the Tour!

Today is the second rest day of the 2010 edition.  Alberto Contador is 8 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck with tomorrow likely to be the defining day of this years race.

As usual we've been treated to a compelling three weeks and thankfully nobody has been thrown out for doping...yet!  There was controversy on Monday when Schleck, who at that time was wearing the yellow jersey, sufferered a 'mechanical' on the final climb of the day.  Contador took advantage of this to ride away and turn a 31 second deficit into the eight second advantage he currently holds.

Like in football when an opposition player is injured you kick the ball out, in cycling there is an etiquette that says you don't attack the yellow jersey if they have a problem.  Opinion is split as to whether 'Bert did anything wrong but he's apologised to Schleck and has even posted this video on YouTube:



For what it's worth I can't see anything wrong with what happend on the Port de Bales.  The Tour is a race and there are plenty of instances of riders taking advantage of a rivals misfortune.  In fact earlier in the race, on Stage 3, Schleck gained time on Contador when his brother, Fränk, crashed and held up the Peloton.

Whatever people's opinion of what happened on Monday, one thing is agreed, Stage 17 is going to be one hell of a Pyrenean battle to the 2,115 metre mountain-top finish of the Col du Tourmalet.

Birthdays, Beers and Brentford Beaten...

...actually, make that thrashed!

A 5-0 defeat is never good and it's even worse when it comes against (at one point at least) one of our major rivals.

Last night was the first friendly of the season and Fulham came down to GP.  To be honest the result, although dissapointing, didn't really matter.  Having been postponed last pre-season, the match was Kevin O'Connor's testimonial and a celebration of his 11 years as a Bee.

A very decent crowd of 4,136 came down to GP and gave Kev a night, erm, to remember!  I met Gabs inside the ground and we took up our usual sport on the Ealing Road terrace.  There were plenty of familiar faces in the crowd and

It was my first friendly for a fair few seasons and I won't be going to another one in a hurry.  The main reason for going was to show support for one of my favourite ever Brentford players, and after 11 'interesting' years in the red and white stripes I thought my £12 contribution to his testimonial fund was money well spent.

As frequently happens, Gabs and I spent most of the 70 minutes (yes we left early, when the fifth went in!) we were in the ground catching up.  One of the worst things about growing up, actually I've not down that yet, lets say growing older and having responsibilities, is that you don't get to see your mates as much.  Brentford games are the main occasions we Bees supporting buddies get to chew the fat.  I'm looking forward to seeing Londra at GP when the season kicks-off.  He's just had his first kid, a boy, no name yet.  CONGRATULATIONS PAUL AND LYNDA :)

Fingers crossed the Bees' pre-season will get better.  Next up are Tonbridge Angels away on Saturday and then Wycombe (and their gaggle of ex-Bees) at GP next Tuesday.  I'll be at GP on 14th August for our first home League game of the 2010/11 season.  I'm on holiday for the first game, Carlisle away.  OK, OK, I wasn't going to schlep up to Brunton Park anyway!  We won 3-1 up there on the first day of last season, here's hoping for more of the same.

Away from football, although I do need to blog about the World Cup and my bloody post about video technology at some point, Sarah turned 27 on Tuesday.

Over the weekend I baked her traditional birthday cake.  Nothing too flash, a Victoria Sponge, but I think I've got it nailed on now :)  I have to give some credit to mum, Ruth, Mrs Malcolm because I used her homemade raspberry jam in the filling which as expected lived up to her Delia Smith-esque cookery reputation, amongst us Malcolms anyway!

Being creatures of habit we went for a meal at Maggie Jones's.  I first went there with work many years ago and it's one of my favourite restaurants in London.  The food is amazing and the house red comes in a magnum and you pay for what you drink which is usually the whole bottle for us two greedy gits.  We go there most birthdays so we'll most likely be back there in September :)

Last Thursday work put on the annual 'Profits Party', in fact I was nicely oiled this time last week!  It's basically a celebration of the previous financial year which with the parent company being American, ends on 30th June.

For the previous couple of years we've had the party in the atrium at work.  Redundancies, and the general downturn didn't warrant a big celebration but with things picking up in CACI-world this year the venue was Aqua Nueva.

Inside it's a typical, large West End bar with a few different rooms but what sets this place apart, especially for a geeky west Londoner, is the roof terrace.  It's always exciting for me, probably a bit too much so, when I get to see London from a new viewpoint and I was more than happy to geek it up with my camera...before too many colleagues arrived anyway ;)

The party was winding down by 01:00 so I took myself off home.  I walked it back which took about an hour.  The journey was uneventful for the most part but I did walk past a couple going at it over one of the street cabinets just after Queensway tube station.  They must have heard my footsteps because by the time I reached them the bloke was hurriedly pulling up his jeans and the knickers of his lucky lady friend. 

Just another ordinary night in London!

Propaganda Press

For the first time in a while I've not received a copy of the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle.  Their campaign against the council tax funded H&F News seems to have died down recently but there could be good news ahead.

The government are looking to tighten the rules on council publications.  Hopefully 'by the end of the summer' we'll have some positive news.

In the meantime fingers crossed for the delivery of a Chronicle next week.  I've got a big soft spot for the Chronicle series.  The Hounslow Borough (or Middlesex if you prefer) edition kept me up to date (give or take a few days for delivery!) with Bees news at Uni before the Internet was awash with official and unofficial websites.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Did anyone else in W12 have no water yesterday?  Got home from work at around 18:00 looking forward to a shower before going to spanish but the taps weren't playing ball.

On BBC London last night they said the powercut in the TW Postcode Area (although the rest of the family live in TW7 and they still had electricity) had an impact on the Hampton treatment water works.

Still, when I got home from from spanish, and after a bit of pipe rattling and water spluttering, normal service was resumed.

Sarah was none the wiser.  She rolled in at 23:15 and passed out on the bed!  Hiccc, hiccc, hicccccup!

I Love Bush

I've just stumbled across this YouTube video, nice :)

Elephant Stone

As expected Sarah’s day at the races turned out to be a boozy affair so she was in no fit state to join me for the Parkrun. I decided to take my camera with me because during the week I’d talked myself into going elephant spotting after the run.

Having just missed out on a PB last week by 10 seconds (is 10 seconds just missing out?!?) I made an effort to try and beat it this week. The start was a bit of a disaster. Plenty of us we still strolling across the grass to the start when suddenly everyone else was pegging from the line!

I don’t wear a watch so the only way I can tell if I’ve done a decent run is how I feel at the end. I felt pretty much similar to last week in that I was pretty knackered so I thought I’d done OK in my quest for a PB.

I don’t wait around so once I’d had my barcode scanned I headed off to unlock my bike for the ride to work so that I could print out a map showing where to find the elephants.

When the weather in nice the ride to and from Richmond Park is a really nice one. OK it’s mostly on busy west London roads but there are some decent views along the way. One of these is from Chiswick Bridge so I decided to stop there and take a couple of photos. OK, OK, I really wanted a photo of the Griffin Park floodlights!

As I was slowing down I noticed that tell tale hissing sound from my back tyre. Yep, a puncture! I don’t carry a pump and repair kit because the cycle to and from work is only ten minutes each way so if I get a puncture I just walk it home.

So there I am, hot, sweaty and well annoyed with the prospect of a 45-minute walk back to W12. All I could think was that even in the close season being a Brentford fan causes misery! I was too pissed off to even bother to take any photos.

I made it home at about half ten and repaired the puncture. As it turned out it was the day for punctures because the new couple in Flat C were outside mending theirs as well.  Sarah was still wallowing in bed so I had some cereal, a shower and then got ready to head out on the bike to find those elephants.

After a quick pit-stop at work to get the map I was on my way. First stop was Kensington Gore and from there I went down to the Natural History and V&A museums.

Then on to (bear with me here!) Sloane Square, Kings Road, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Orange Square, Fulham Road, Harrods, Knightsbridge Green, Hyde Park Corner, a couple of sites in Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Old Quebec Street, Park Lane, The Dorchester, The Hilton Park Lane, High Street Kensington, Notting Hill Gate and finally Holland Park.

I was a bit apprehensive taking the first few photos but I soon got past that and had a really enjoyable afternoon cycling around west London. I hadn’t taken much notice of the parade until last week but I met loads of people making their way round London trying to collect the full set. A bit like Panini stickers I suppose. I need to pop into Westfield and bag another four. Be a bit silly not to seeing as it’s only a three minute walk away!

The parade is only on for another couple of weeks so it’ll be good going for to get even half the collection. Still, they are all in one place the weekend of 26th June so that’ll make it a bit easier :)

I’ve uploaded all the photos to Flickr and as it turns out so have a hell of a lot of other people!

A few beers in Chiswick with Chris in the evening capped a pretty decent day.  On Monday I checked my time and WOO HOO I'd managed a PB.  This time it was a case of 'only just'...one glorious second...turns out my 13th run wasn't an unlucky one :)

Dispersal of Fortune!

There's a new dispersal zone in the Bush and lucky old Lime Grove gets to be included!

Groups of two of more people can be removed from the zone with an esclation in the punishmetns should they fail to do so. Full story here.

It's good to see LBHF taking some action and I wonder what affect this will have on the groups of wasted men and women I regularly see roaming the streets of W12.

The Limegrove Hostel is pretty much opposite the flat and Lime Grove residents see a marked increase in activity around there during the summer months.  This dispersal zone will hopefully reduce the disruption.

There is a Lime Grove Neighbourhood Watch meeting next Wednesday at the College.  I'm sure this will be a hot topic of conversation.

16th June Neighbourhood Watch Meeting

The agenda is:

- Burglaries
- Fly-tipping
- Anti social behaviour
- Limegrive Hostel update
- A.O.B

Video! Video! VIDEO!

Across the pond there is a big debate raging about the use of video replay in sport.

On Wednesday the Detroit Tigers were playing the Cleveland Indians and a controversial call by first base umpire Jim Joyce cost the Detroit pitcher, Armando Galarraga, the pitcher Holy Grail, a perfect game.

Put simply, a perfect game is one where during the course of nine innings (or more if it goes into extra innings!) no opposition player makes it to first base.  Three outs make an innings so in a nine inning game twenty seven batsmen are retired without making it to base.

Does that make sense, maybe, maybe not!  A detailed explanation here.

Only twenty perfect games have been thrown in Major League history so it's a big deal when it happens. Strangely there have been two perfect games so far in the 2010 season, which has prompted quite a lot of debate about why, when in the past they have been so rare, perfect games are occurring more frequently.

Some commentators are saying that with the steroid scandals and subsequent drug controls, pitchers are now facing batters who aren't, for want of a better phrase, drugged up to the eyeballs.

Others are saying that it is still a random event as opposed to evidence of a changing game.  Whatever the reason, it certainly makes for interesting viewing on ESPN :)

Anyway, back to video evidence.  If baseball used it Armando Galarraga would be the third pitcher in 2010 to achieve a perfect game.  They don’t so he has to make do with a little red Corvette!

In the NHL video evidence is regularly used to review tight goal/no goal calls.  Funnily enough in game three of the Stanley Cup finals, also on Wednesday, goal-line technology was used twice and not so strangely the correct decision was made both times, one good goal given and one no goal not!

There is also a lot of debate about the use of goal-line technology in football and with the start of the World Cup only a week away (WOO HOO!!) the events in America again bring into focus how important it is for sport to embrace the ability to make non-questionable, clear-cut decisions.

There are plenty of recent examples in English football where goal-line technology would have made a difference in games, good goal not given, no goal given.  But the door has been closed by FIFA.

I just hope that FIFA don't rue their decision to categorically rule out its use.  Hopefully there won't be an incident like this…



…even if it does work in England's favour.

There has been quite an end to Wednesday’s events in Detroit.  At the time Jim Joyce was the man who made the worst call in baseball history but on Thursday the often-overlooked sportsmanship of fans and players meant that Jim has quite a moving afternoon at Tiger Field.

He'd already apologised for the blown call and it has been reported that there were quite emotional scenes during the pre-game formalities with Jim and Armando Galarraga shaking hands during the line-up handover.

Humans make mistakes and they often add to the allure of sport. Jim Joyce made a really bad call but has stood up, taken the criticism and apologised for his mistakes.  If referees in England did the same us fans would have a lot more respect for them.

Stuart Attwell take note!

Middle Middle Middle Sex Sex Sex

It's a glorious evening in west London and I'm geeking it up listening to Middlesex take on Sussex at Lords on the BBC London commentary.  It's not looking great at the moment for the Panthers they are 88 for 5 after 15 of their 20 over.

I came home from work expecting to go out for a few beers with Sarah but she's in the kitchen preparing cakes for her team day out at Epsom.  It's the Derby on Saturday so there will be a big crowd tomorrow for the first day of the meeting.  It's also Ladies Day with will make for great viewing with the forecast predicting 26° ;)

Cricket update - Hmmm, 54 runs from 24 balls needed now!

I was looking at a random blog earlier which linked to this blog template site.  I like the simple black theme I picked when I set the blog up but I do sometimes think that it's a bit boring.  There are a few styles I've seen that would look OK I think.  Perhaps I'll experiment with a couple over the next few weeks...

Prolet
Black Grass
Panorama

Maybe I could even create my own.  What I do know is that I'm most likely to stick with what I've got at the moment!

Fruitless Cricket update - 35 from 6 balls to win, lol.  Still, 15 Twenty20 games still to play in the South Group.  Eight wins should see the Panthers through to the quarter finals.

The domestic football season is over at it's countdown to the World Cup now. I've added a countdown widget to the blog, just for fun!

The three teams I wanted to go up via the play-offs duly obliged.  I should have put a bet on! Blackpool will be gracing the Premiership, Millwall the Championship and Dagenham and Redbridge join the Bees in League One. Meanwhile Oxford are back in the Football League having won the Blue Square play-off.

As a Bees fan it gives me hope that we can emulate Blackpool's success (although I'm totally sure I ever want to see GP full of the prawn sarnie brigade) but I'm a bit gutted that four seasons ago we were in the same division and did the double over them!  Still, they had the last laugh that season as we went down and they won the second of their three play-off victories on the way to the top division.

The worst thing about the World Cup is that almost every advert on the TV is jumping on the bandwagon.  There are footballers and footballs everywhere. Surly top of most peoples hit list has to be this little ditty:



AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

The England team arrived in Rustenburg today at what looks like a pretty sweet resort. Hopefully there won't be the WAG circus like in Baden-Baden four years ago.  England have a decent chance and a bit of luck along the way could see us make it past the quarter finals for the first time since Italia '90.  I just can't see past Spain as winners.

I'm off on a lads weekend next Friday.  Six of us are off to Marbella, the retirement home of the aging British gangster.  Hopefully the place will be buzzing next Saturday when England take on the Yanks.  Surely this can't happen again, can it?!?!

Oooh I'm getting excited.  The World Cup with a lads holiday thrown in for the first weekend :)  If anyone is looking for a good World Cup schedlue here is a great Excel version.

As Rakim and DJ Premier Once Said, It's Been A Long Time!

Well it’s been a while, so long in fact that we’ve had a change of government and the domestic football season is in it’s final throes.

Looking out of the window here is looks as though summer may finally be on its way arriving.  At home the woolly sheep has been taken off the bed, washed and put away until…next week probably!

So, apart from the election, I’ll only get depressed if I talk about that, what been happening since the last update?

The Bees’ season ended on 8th May with draw number 20.  This time Hartlepool came to TW8 and took home the point that kept them up and sent Gillingham down.  What rotten luck for the Gills!  Did I mention they went down on goal difference, no, well they did.

There is still plenty of football being played however.  The Football League Play-Offs are in full swing and are providing their usual end of season excitement.

In the Championship Cardiff City and Blackpool have made it to Wembley while last night Millwall comfortably beat Huddersfield Town 2-0 in the their second leg and will face Swindon Town who beat Charlton Athletic 5-4, <> on penalties on Monday.

The League Two finalists will be decided tonight and tomorrow.  Rotherham United take a 1-0 lead into their second leg at home to Aldershot Town while tomorrow Dagenham and Redbridge play Morecambe having smashed them 6-0 in the first leg.  Sadly the antics of union boss Bob Crow made more headlines.  Shame we can’t send him cockle picking tomorrow night!

Away from football Sarah and I went to Ireland for a long weekend on 22nd April.  We got really lucky because that Thursday was the first day of resumed UK flights, great timing :)

It was my first trip to Ireland since 1989 and considering I have a fair amount of family there it’s pretty shameful that I’d not been over before.  Sarah hadn’t been over for around 15 years so we were both well overdue.

We had hired a car at Dublin Airport and buzzed up to County Louth via the relatively new M1 motorway.  We stayed in a dodgy B&B and spent most of the time with her family in and around Castlebellingham and Blackrock.

Sarah’s grandma was born in Castlebellingham so there was a lot of catching up with cousins and extended family.  We did a bit of touring around in the car but I’m not one for enjoying a drive just for the sake of it so we never ventured too far!

We headed back to Dublin on the Saturday evening, handed back the car and took the bus into the city centre.  The hotel was right on O’Connell Street, handy (to say the least) for getting around the city.

After dumping our bags we went out for a couple of pints, here and here and then went to find the place Sarah had in mind for dinner.  After a stroll around which took us past Trinity College and up to St. Stephen’s Green we got to the restaurant only to find they had stopped serving.  Sarah wasn’t too pleased but a little further down the road we came across the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill, which, of course was very much to her liking!  I have to say, it was a cracking dinner.

 
On Sunday we both had a superb Irish breakfast (with a brownie and vanilla ice cream for afters!) at Gruel and did the tourist thing   After having our end of tour pint of Guinness we met up with my cousin Bríd and her youngest Edward.  They live in Blanchardstown and took us to a lovely restaurant for a bite to eat.  Edward recommended the steak, music to our ears.  It came served on a hot slab of slate so you can cook the meat to your preference.  DE-LIC-IOUS.

On the way back to the hotel Ed drove us past the pub where notorious Dublin gangster Eamon Dunne had been shot two nights before.  Even the Lonely Planet couldn’t detail this new stop on the tourist trail!

It would have been rude not to go out for a couple of evening pints so we duly obliged.  As it turned out our couple of days/nights in Dublin coincided with the NFL and NHL finals (no not more US sports!) meaning that there were a lot of people sporting various county colours and states of intoxication.  It was good to see that people who are well past needing one last drink get served as easily in Ireland as they do in the UK.  Shame on the US and Australia for being sensible ;)

On the Monday we went back to Gruel (once Sarah finds somewhere she likes nowhere else gets a look in!) for the same breakfast and brownie combo before heading to the airport for the flight to Heathrow.

No delays on the way home and we even flew over GP on the way in which never fails to excite.  We got pretty lucky with our flights judging by the on-going travel disruption that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano is causing.