In Hoose Entertainment

I’m off to Turkey. no updates for a while (I’m back on the 26th).

Thursday - New Samsi with the goonies - sushi was ok, chicken teryaki not as impressive, and too expensive for the amount of food you get - but an enjoyable experience overall. Quiz after, Sarah came to it too (star!) we lost, though.

Friday - Popped off to Stafford to visit G’ma whilst the parents were still there.

Saturday - Got back and spent the day with Sarah. Ended up watching Superman (3/5).

Sunday - Cooked a sunday roast for the folks, Sarah, Rosy & Nick. Was mighty tasty. Packed and the like, and already starting to miss people…

Istanbul tomorrow. Then Bodrum later in the week. I’m back a week on Wednesday. See you then.

Monday :
Supervisor, followed by frustration at work.
Football in the evening, then poker. I won a Hattrick tourney for $25, but Andi chopped an MTT for $1260, which we all ended up watching. Nice one!

Tuesday:
More frustration at work (grrrr!)
Football with Rosy’s workmates, then squash with Adrian (9-4), Nick (5-9), Si (4-9) and Rosy (9-7). I thought I played well for someone who had not played since a school trip to Doncaster Dome in the mid 90s (plus I lost without scoring back then, too!)

Wednesday:
Parents visited and I built a wall in the back garden. (I’m quite proud of my wall).
Afterwards, played half an hours hockey before meeting up with Sarah in The Great Kathmandu for our latest date, which went well.

soon I’m off to turkey, so expect fewer updates.

And leave comments, you cretins.

Monday : Work Evening : Football (stayed in)
Tuesday: Work Evening : Sarah’s place

Wednesday : Work in Garden, Pitch n’ Putt Evening : Hockey, Mike’s Graduation Drinks
— Parents came over in the morning. Dad and I went to P&P where I scored 85 after dad taught me how to play properly. Scored lots in Hockey and Mike’s grad. drinks were at Hardy’s

Thursday : Work in Garden, IKEA Evening : Matt & Phredd’s
— bought a bed, desk, chair, chest of drawers. Thanks to Sarah & Sara we got a 25% discount at IKEA, it was all last minute stuff and thanks to some lady in the warehouse who ran around trying to find Sara for us. We got the voucher with seconds to spare (literally, we were paying!). The evening date was ace.

Friday : Hanging around waiting for IKEA stuff. Evening : Sarah’s for Dinner.
— IKEA promised before 12, arrived 430pm. Grrrr. Sarah once again cooked up a treat, with pasta followed by panecotta. Yum.

Saturday : Putting the bed up. Evening : Lad’s night in.
— Bed took up most of the day. Mike came over and we dithered about going out to the pub before settling for staying in, watching footie & comedy whilst emptying our fridge of beer.

Sunday : Barbeque.
— went down asda and bought two small bbq’s. Sarah put them together whilst Rosy, Nick & I cleared the house. Then lots of people* came over and ate food. Good stuff.
Oh, and Italy won the world cup on penalties after Zidane got sent off for a headbutt.

* = Sarah, Jenny, Si, Mahinda, Linden, Luc, Adrian, Emma, (Nick, Rosy & Me)

I’ve been too busy to properly update this.

This state of affairs may continue for some time.

So the weekend happened… and we’re out of the world cup to Portugal in an ill tempered game.

Overall it’s not been the greatest of world cups for us, Sven’s tactics of killing games before scoring are overly reliant on actually having someone score, which with the dirth of strikers in the squad and Lampard hideously off form has proved difficult, to say the least.

It’s also made for dull viewing, and whilst we controlled most of most of the games, if we can’t score, we can’t win (and we’re naff at penalties).

It also meant half the nation were turned off as our style of play is somewhat, ah, pragmatic, let’s say, and understandably, with me included, we’d rather see some all-action gun ho stuff…. Like Germany are playing currently (though I hate to say it!).

Who do I now want to win?

Well not Portugal, their vile tactics appalled me even before they knocked us out and I’d hate to see them win through.

Both France and Germany are playing some nice stuff, but both (especially France, and it baffles me as to why international coaches haven’t exploited their obvious weakness) have flaws. I’m not overly a fan of either side, but I’d be happy enough for them to win it.

Italy are my pick, though, I have them in a sweepstake, and I really wouldn’t mind them lifting the trophy.

Aaaaaanyway…. What happened this weekend?

Friday

Went into work and left to watch the Germany v Argentina match (Germany won on pens).

Got home and cooked a trout dinner for Sarah. Which was nice.

Saturday

Moseyed on down early to the four in hand to watch the England game. Sarah, Nick and I were the first to arrive and we settled down inside and played a bit of Jenga and Rummy whilst waiting for everyone else to arrive.

Lots and lots of people did (including mike + Pam - up from cheltenham for Si’s birthday) and before long the pub was swelteringly hot… and they’d run out of ice.

I’ll brush over the result, we all know what happened.

I headed back home for a quick shower and some pasta\pesto\tuna combination with Sarah before going on to “The Knott bar” where Si’s birthday celebrations were taking place.

Still stifilingly hot we moved onto 42’s, who almost didn’t let Sarah in due to her shoes (!).

We lasted about an hour before melting into the floor… Pam, Mike, Sarah, Nick and I left, leaving the hard core groovers to take up the beat and last it out.

almost straight to bed when I got home!

Sunday

Mum and Dad came round early and said hi to Mike, Pam, Sarah, Nick, Rosy and I.

After they’d gone Solomon’s breakfast happened, but again the heat ratcheted up and a lack of decent A\C meant solo’s was pretty hot, pretty quickly.

Everyone else arrived soon after and we stayed until around 2pm. Mike and Pam jetted off back home for a few days and Sarah and I went to her family BBQ in St. Helens - returning home at around 1030pm, I read for a bit then went to sleep.

I was generally very very tired (the heat…. the heat!) , but the whole weekend (apart from the result!) was a good one.

It’s Monday now, and I’ve just met with my supervisor.

Because I know this is the sort of thing I’ll be interested to read in about 2 years time, I thought I’d post my ratings and comments on the England squad over the course of the world cup…

1 Paul Robinson 5
Had a poor tournament, flapped at crosses, caused some uncertainty and looked out of sorts and nervous. Plus point is the big game experience will help him at future tournaments, and he’s clearly Englands nr.1.

2 Gary Neville 6

Was missed when he didn’t play, but didn’t actually do very well when he did. Regularly caught out of position and starting to look his age. He’s the best of a bad bunch at RB.

3 Ashley Cole 6

Awful for the group games, and then a marked improvement saw him become one of our better defenders.

4 Steven Gerrard 6

Solid tournament, could’ve got forward more to support the single striker, and could’ve taken a few more games by the scruff of the neck. Was often sytmied into holding for Lampard, but still could’ve showed more.

5 Rio Ferdinand 7

Solid at the back, our best defender hardly put a foot wrong.

6 John Terry 6

Generally solid, but a few errors and a few poor halves in the group stages

7 David Beckham 5

Poor tournament for England’s captain, yet he walked away with 1 goal and 2 assists. Even his set pieces were poor against Portugal though, and that’s basically all he’s in the team for.

8 Frank Lampard 3

Awful tournament, and got worse as it went on until he reached his nadir against Ecuador. His wayward shooting clearly affected his confidence and resulted in wayward passing. He’s a quality player and will be back, but he’ll want to forget this tournament.

9 Wayne Rooney 5

Worked hard, but showed few flashes of why he’s our “Golden Boy”. Never came across as fully fit and asked to do a thankless task, He never really showed up and left without a goal.

10 Michael Owen 3

Poor. His injury would’ve been a blessing if we’d actually taken any other strikers.

11 Joe Cole 6

Our best player in the group games, but disapeared in the knock outs. Perhaps this is why Mourinho criticises him whenever he plays well?! Scored our best goal of the tournament.

12 Sol Campbell 4

Only played a few minutes, but played them poorly

13 David James did not play
14 Wayne Bridge did not play
15 Jamie Carragher 5

Not an international right back, but should be ahead of campbell as 3rd choice centre back.

16 Owen Hargreaves 8

Unfairly criticised before the tournament, Hargreaves showed why he’s so highly rated by Bayern Munich. Played well in the group, then even better in the knock outs. Was the stand out player against Portugal.

17 Jermaine Jenas did not play

why was he there?

18 Michael Carrick 6

Didn’t see much action, but didn’t do anything wrong.

19 Aaron Lennon 7

Always looked more threatening than Beckham. Had a stormer in a couple of games, but could create more (i.e. his final ball is not too great). If he holds his pace, with additional experience and development then he’ll be a world beater at the next world cup.

20 Stewart Downing 5

Didn’t get much opportunity, but didn’t let himself down.

21 Peter Crouch 6

Not Great but played his role well, when required.

22 Scott Carson did not play
23 Theo Walcott did not play

why was he there?

Sven Goran-Eriksonn 5

Got the squad wrong, and didn’t adapt his tactics until injury forced his hand. Even then he left his strikers far to isolated as he strived to push home his almost catenaccio tactics on each game.
Admitedly they worked, to some extent, but he seemed to forget that we do actually need to score one to win the game… He’s underachieved.