What is it with penalties?

You've got to feel sorry for the under-21s. Scoring 12 penalties in a shoot-out and still going out of the tournament.

Young 1-0 Babel 1-1
Milner 2-1 Drenthe (hit post) 2-1
Noble 3-1 Janssen 3-2
Hoyte (saved) 3-2 Beerens 3-3
Derbyshire 4-3 Maduro 4-4
Ferdinand 5-4 De Ridder 5-5
Carson 6-5 Zuiverloon 6-6
Rosenior 7-6 Rigters 7-7
Reo-Coker (saved) 7-7 Kruiswijk (miss) 7-7
Taylor 8-7 Waterman 8-8
Young 9-8 Beerens 9-9
Milner (10-9) Drenthe 10-10
Noble 11-10 Maduro 11-11
Hoyte 12-11 Janssen 12-12
Derbyshire (saved) 12-12 De Ridder (saved) 12-12
Ferdinand (hit bar) 12-12 Zuiverloon 12-13

Truly gripping stuff stuff last night. Me and Anne were supposed to be going to the shops, by the time it had all ended it was closed. Still the team can be very proud, if anyone knows the ups and downs it'll be Stuart Pearce, he'll focus them on the positives.

It works out not-too-terribly for us as we are hoping to stay with a Dutch friend whilst we are away on holidays. After nipping down to Portsmouth we are doing a quick tour of Belguim, Luxembourg and The Netherlands....after last year's lung bursting trip up the Andes we decided that somewhere nice and flat was the only answer!

Before we go I am depserately trying to get the garden into order...After a positive warm-up match with a laurel (now thoroughly tidied and topiaried) I came off second best with the hopelessly leggy and overgrown leylandii....my arms look live I've been wrestling with a cete of pissed off badgers, I think my shears are knackered and even my anvil loppers are looking a bit flimsy for the job. This does not bode well for my forthcoming lumber jack session with cherry tree!

Ah the joys of gardening...The people who owned the house before us seemed loathed to cut a single leaf on their little back garden forest, it's lovely but really does need a lot of TLC. Anyway, once more unto the (copper) beech (arf!). I wonder how The New Forest and The Ardennes will compare.

It reminds me of : Pat and Mick are sitting in the job centre...the guy asks them "Do you have any lumberjack experience, the local park is overgrown and the council are looking fro tree fellers". Mick replies *Irish accent* "Sure there's only two of us but we'll get the job done"