I realise that I have been wayward in keeping the blog up to date. I am going to do some catch-up posts, starting now. After this, I will try to be more diligent!
I have discovered how to re-date the posts so they appear to have been posted when I intended to write them.
This post is supposed to have been created just after my birthday, when we were in Dubai.
Karen put on a genuine surprise by flying my mum & Richard out to meet us. Then on the day itself, she arranged an "Arabian Experience": the six of us had dinner on the beach in a private tent. Enormous quantities of Arabian food - many courses - most of which was indeed delicious. It was rather surreal. The boys had chicken nuggets ! We played football in the dark on the beach and had a quick swim in the beachside pool (which was technically shut). It was all-round an excellent 40th birthday.
ps - Last night (the real last night - 17th November) we went to Jim's 40th birthday near Luton and he had kitted out the whole house in Arabian style and laid on a belly-dancer (demo and teach-in modes !) and ethnic drums (one drummer, lots of drums for people to join in with). It was a really clever idea and was a big success. The kids (there were hundreds of them) had a great time.
Friday, 26 October 2007
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
News has reached us in Dubai that Brickhill lost in the league to SKF Youth. The 4-3 defeat means Ampthill are now the only undefeated team in the league, and can overtake us if they win their game in hand.
This result is not as disappointing as Lewis Hamilton's failure to secure the F1 world championship. Kimi Raikkonen coming through to win after being 17 points behind with 2 races to go proves that, in sport, anything that is not impossible is - indeed - possible.
This result is not as disappointing as Lewis Hamilton's failure to secure the F1 world championship. Kimi Raikkonen coming through to win after being 17 points behind with 2 races to go proves that, in sport, anything that is not impossible is - indeed - possible.
Sunday, 14 October 2007
cup cake
We were not able to be at the cup match today but Brickhill won 3-2 (after extra time). We had been trailing 2-1, but equalised to force extra time. Apparently it was headed for penalties before we found a winner later in the second period of added time.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Trains & Training
I decided to come home early to catch football training on Wednesday night. After my journey took 2h20 by car on Monday morning, it was clear the time had come to revert to the train (total journey time 1h20-1h50). I duly allowed plenty of time to travel over to St. Pancras for the 16:30.
Arriving early, I found my train (and several before and after it) had been cancelled !
In the end, I caught an all-stations from Thameslink and arrived back in Bedford with a total journey time of 2h40. It could have been worse.
I was in time to cycle down to join Harry & Karen at training (no lights, so an all-pavement route. Bedford is well suited to this). I'm always impressed by the professional set-up of the training regime. But it's still done very much in a fun & friendly way. The extra drills and fitness are being introduced gradually.
Walking back with Harry, we passed the unusual sight (well I have never seen it before) of kayakers and oarsmen on the river with lights on their lifejackets and hulls respectively. From a distance, the bobbing forms looked like they should be river-birds, so the lights were very confusing ! Only close-up could we see what was really happening.
There's a cup match at the weekend which Harry can't make. There is some talk of skullduggery on the part of the opposition - something about A-team switching with B-team. I ignore all of this. Hopefully we will beat whatever team turns out.
In the league, Brickhill are of course the clear leaders, although Ampthill are also unbeaten and so our matches against them will be critical. We're not playing them until at least November, however.
Arriving early, I found my train (and several before and after it) had been cancelled !
In the end, I caught an all-stations from Thameslink and arrived back in Bedford with a total journey time of 2h40. It could have been worse.
I was in time to cycle down to join Harry & Karen at training (no lights, so an all-pavement route. Bedford is well suited to this). I'm always impressed by the professional set-up of the training regime. But it's still done very much in a fun & friendly way. The extra drills and fitness are being introduced gradually.
Walking back with Harry, we passed the unusual sight (well I have never seen it before) of kayakers and oarsmen on the river with lights on their lifejackets and hulls respectively. From a distance, the bobbing forms looked like they should be river-birds, so the lights were very confusing ! Only close-up could we see what was really happening.
There's a cup match at the weekend which Harry can't make. There is some talk of skullduggery on the part of the opposition - something about A-team switching with B-team. I ignore all of this. Hopefully we will beat whatever team turns out.
In the league, Brickhill are of course the clear leaders, although Ampthill are also unbeaten and so our matches against them will be critical. We're not playing them until at least November, however.
Sunday, 7 October 2007
Yellow perils
At home to Westoning today. Checking my facts pre-match, I found that the opposition were not, in fact, unbeaten this season. However - with 3 wins from 4 - they were clearly a strong side.
Their strip of yellow shorts and blue shorts was a violent visual clash with Harry's usual kit, so it was a quick change into the spare orange jersey before the start. We were missing a couple of players through absence, and injury, and also missing our mascot "Pebble" (Luke's dog). Some superstitious players were a little concerned about the omens.
Brickhill seemed tired in the first half and Westoning, by contrast, were very lively. There were chances at both ends before the yellows broke the deadlock to take a 1-0 lead after 12 minutes. They added to this a few minutes before half time. There could have been more goals either way, but 2-0 down was the situation at the break.
Brickhill looked downhearted and it appeared we could be heading for a first defeat.
However, the situation changed with the first home goal. Niall created a scoring situation for Elijah who found the very corner with a confident left foot. Niall scored himself just 90 seconds later, with a brilliant solo effort to level things up. Now the mood was reversed completely.
Elijah soon ran onto a long ball and took Brickhill into the lead, although his bravery was rewarded with a painful collision as well as a goal.
Brickhill now plainly had the better of the game - perhaps the stamina training is paying dividends. Ewan with a fourth goal made the lead much more secure with less than 10 minutes to go, and finally Greg added a 5th to secure the win.
5-2 the final score. 5 wins from 5 - how long can it continue ?
Their strip of yellow shorts and blue shorts was a violent visual clash with Harry's usual kit, so it was a quick change into the spare orange jersey before the start. We were missing a couple of players through absence, and injury, and also missing our mascot "Pebble" (Luke's dog). Some superstitious players were a little concerned about the omens.
Brickhill seemed tired in the first half and Westoning, by contrast, were very lively. There were chances at both ends before the yellows broke the deadlock to take a 1-0 lead after 12 minutes. They added to this a few minutes before half time. There could have been more goals either way, but 2-0 down was the situation at the break.
Brickhill looked downhearted and it appeared we could be heading for a first defeat.
However, the situation changed with the first home goal. Niall created a scoring situation for Elijah who found the very corner with a confident left foot. Niall scored himself just 90 seconds later, with a brilliant solo effort to level things up. Now the mood was reversed completely.
Elijah soon ran onto a long ball and took Brickhill into the lead, although his bravery was rewarded with a painful collision as well as a goal.
Brickhill now plainly had the better of the game - perhaps the stamina training is paying dividends. Ewan with a fourth goal made the lead much more secure with less than 10 minutes to go, and finally Greg added a 5th to secure the win.
5-2 the final score. 5 wins from 5 - how long can it continue ?
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Mock turtle
Karen is in Northern Ireland visiting a friend. Football tomorrow (both sides unbeaten so far - a big game. Harry has a bad cold but he should be OK I think).
Pending news of the game, I thought I would show you a picture of Mr. Turtle. He came to live with us a few months ago. No one knows where we came from, or how he got here. He lives in the front garden and - being a turtle (or tortoise perhaps) - he moves around quite slowly. Most recently he was sitting under a palm tree, when this photo was taken.
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