Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Back

It isn't that nothing has happened this week, nor is it that I am being particularly coy about the things that have happened; it's just that it hasn't been very good unfortunately. That is a real shame as Joe was 21 this week meaning it should have been a good weekend.

The celebrations have been postponed because of illness and most of the week has centered around Southampton General Hospital with Nat being admitted on Sunday. Glen had been under the weather for a few days and she appears to have picked up the same problem. With her lack of resistance and constitution it didn't take long for us to end up with the ambulance being called. Thankfully things are slowly turning round now but it will take time.

Joe's party has been put off till Easter and his actual birthday on Monday was something less than we wanted. Mind you I think he appreciates the money that has come his way in preparation for his time at university later this year.

That has meant missed football with Glen not at training on Saturday and unavailable for the trip to league leaders, Chickerell, on Sunday. The team had a fantastic result with a 2 - 1 victory meaning they can go top if they win their game in hand. That's six straight wins for the Rossgarth under 12s.

Equally stunning is the Monday result against Pye Celtic which saw Thirty Plus slaughter them 3 - 0. I have no further details at this stage but my guess would be that Simon scored 4! He used to claim so many ficticious goals but I am probably doing him an injustice.

Two other pieces of information to note. The best is getting in contact with Chris in the States, a close friend at University who has the ability to go anywhere and find his feet in any situation. He seems able to turn his hand to anything and is now a successful lawyer married with three children and a wife working for NASA. He is also a genuine Chelsea fan who supported them in the fallow years, all fifty of them, and can enjoy the pleasures of their present success albeit spoilt somewhat by an inability on the part of Arjen Robben to stand up in the face of any contact. He must struggle walking down a busy street, forever being pushed to the ground. I hope the big boys don't pick on him too much.

The other point is that I have got rid of all the extra bits and pieces from the site, the calendar, the history, the news, the poll. What a waste of time they were, just getting in the way. I do enjoy looking at the visitor counter though and am constantly wondering how on earth so many people end up here. It's not as if you end up here by searching for pictures of Kelly Brook (insert name of whoever happens to be the current 'babe') or Danish cartoons illustrating the prophet in some offensive guise. I'm particularly pleased about that though. It must be difficult to find positive images of Islam at the moment in the media with protestors in suicide outfits, banners urging beheading and a man with a hook jailed for incitement. Even things like the ferry sinking en route to Egypt has undertones of negativity with their apparent disregard for human life similar to the huge numbers crushed to death whilst on pilgrimage to Mecca.

Good news doesn't sell the same. Ask the Daily Mail. I remember reading the headlines promising terror on the streets as opening hours were liberalised, generating fear, encouraging cynicism as politicians refused to budge from their crazy ideas in the face of common sense. Too early to be certain of course but the figures suggest it hasn't turned out quite like that yet. Perhaps prejudice sometimes masquerades as common sense.

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