Notes from the Road - Travels in City and Country

Notes from the Road - Travels in City and Country

Cool photography site.

And I see that Britain has finally finished paying for defending the free world back in World War II

UK settles WWII debt to Allies

Ah Christmas

It may be a cliche (and could possibly do with 20 minutes cutting out of it) but this is the best Christmas film there'll ever be.

Merry Christmas. Happy Nativity. God Bless.

Went to the football yesterday...bit of a dour affair but this Johnson penalty drought is getting stupid now. What does he have to do? It looked like Anichebe should have had one too (although I'be not seen a replay yet). Other than that it was pretty poor fare...we just lumped the ball into the middle time and time again and they never looked troubled. Woodgate and Pogatetz were both immense and, basically, we lacked the nouse to get past them.


The story of the game in one handy picture.

The cricket is proceding tamely towards another Australia win but not helped by our bowling plan going missing from the dressing room and being delivered immediately to the Aussie media to crow over.

Oooh look

Chelsea

BBC SPORT | Football | Premiership | Wigan 2-3 Chelsea

Well they just keep doing it don't they? This was another example of the big players stepping up when required.

In fairness they should have been out of site by half time but a goal by Wigan with the last touch of the first half gave the Latics hope and in the 2nd half they equalised. Again they got back into the game and stole all three points from under the oppositions nose. Even Mourinho admitted it was three points they didn't really deserve. The sign of the great side I suppose. Whatever it makes the loss at Goodison last week a little easier to take.

Reading 0-2 Everton paling into insignificance

BBC SPORT | Football | Premiership | Reading 0-2 Everton

Get in...that's a top result that. We are a good side this season but if we'd have not got three points there it could have set a worrying tone for us going into the new year.



More importantly it means that AJ has broken is drought. 12 games was a long stretch but anyone who's been watching us knows that his overall contribution has been high. Getting amongst the goals is very important though. Arteta has had a couple of injury worries but it continuing to play well...it's great the wat he's stepped up and took responsibilty in the absence of Cahill.

Joy at Everton's win was tempered with the news that Dancing Dave Christian finally lost his fight against cancer. Dave was a rednose who went on the ToffeeWeb forum. Frequently an agent provocateur he'd mock Everton and Evertonians mercilessly occasionally crossing over the line but ultimately remaining a chap you always had tremendous affection for. The reaction on the forum was one of immediate sorrow stopping any talk of Everton's win in it's tracks and provoking an immense amount of tributes.

I bring this up as my tribute to the man...the fact that the sad news cut off all thought of our team and lead blues to post "You'll Never Walk Alone" and be truly glad that that lot across the park had won is the best way I can think of to outline what a great guy he was.

God bless you Dave, I still owe you a pint.

SB

fog

It's making people's lives a misery down south with terrible delays down at Heathrow.

Air travel disrupted

but this is a fantastic picture :


Glastonbury tor

BBC Photos

Christmas shopping

Done...as in 100% complete.

I've just got a the last few bits I'd hoped to get. I now need nothing else in the run up to Christmas aside from a crate or two of Cains Lager or Cains Liverpool Lager.

Chuffed!

Bring on the "Away in a Manger", "Ding Dong Merrily" and maybe even "The First Noel"!

I am also ahead of the game with my new years resolution of not using any plastic bags from now on having got some decent quality shopping bags. I know this makes me a bit of a hippy queg but *shrugs*

Anyway, with thanks to Nate, have a very merry Christmas :


"The real Santa moved un-noticed amongst the imposters...he had plans for a certain Mr Gerrard...oh yes! Big plans!"

Also the season of goodwill is spreading it's warmth :

Jose Mourinho statement (also on the BBC)

Good old Jose! Can we have our three points now back please!

and here's a cool site for footy shirt histories :

Everton - Historical Football Kits

AJ again

BBC SPORT | Football | Premiership | Johnson insists he is not a diver

Good on Everton for pressing this point. Johnson get's goal-side and defenders start pulling him all over the place. Fair enough he goes down easy but he's getting fouled plain and simple.

A chap on ToffeeWeb made an interesting point...he reckons the instant furore over the Johnson thing was orchestrated by Chelsea to get onto the back of the ref. It makes sense...it was an honest tumble. The defender is behind Johnson shoving him whilst the goal-keeper is flying at his legs...and all of a sudden Mourinho is going mental. They were waiting for Johnson to go to ground so they could all cry foul and get the officials under pressure. Sneaky gets.

gutted

Everton were superb at the weekend...they deserved so much more. Tonnes of pride and work-rate and not completely lacking in skill. Twice we were in the lead against Chelsea and in the end they had to pull something truly special out of the locker to get the better of us.

It was so gutting when Drogba's shot hit the net.

The fans were singing and applauding at the end, the players deserved nothing less. Goodison was rocking when Yobo put us into the lead...a reminder why the place is so special. Mourinho spat his dummy out of the pram over a penalty shout from AJ. It looked pretty valid to me



Moyes put him firmly in his place by mentioning the fuss when an opposition didn't jump over a Chelsea keeper.

Waterloo held a fairly decent lead at half time at the weekend but let it slip...you get the feeling it'll take a miracle now.

England handed the ashes back to the Aussies in the shortest possible time...this really is depressing.

*sigh*

YouTube - The Tokyopia Wedding Game

This is awesome...my mate Dave's wedding was spiced up by his tecky mates.

Truly brilliant

It's Ground-move day!

Another ground move announcement :

BBC NEWS | England | Merseyside | Everton confirm new stadium talks

BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Everton | Everton reassure fans over move

This is a tricky one...I'm not totally against a ground move but I think it has to be shown why it'll be better and more profitable than what we've got now. Why will it generate extra cash? How long will it take to pay for itself? How long will the club be in debt for?

Every true Evertonian loves Goodison...for all it's faults it's a great old ground, a proper old footy stadium. On it's day the atmosphere is immense, thinking back to the Blackburn game last season you have to say that these new ground just don't have the same feeling. People need to realise that it's a big sacrifice to leave our home, especially when a move will take us out of the city. Do we really want some shiny polished concrete generic "Reebokside Stadium of Pride". The aborted Kings Dock project would have been something special and was, basically, laid on a plate for us but the club screwed it up. That would have been a great ground in the heart of our city, this new thing just doesn't entice.

There's a lot of convincing to be done methinks.

Sport personality

BBC Sports Personality of the Year?!?!?!?!

Who on earth voted for that?!?!?!?! St Helens and Zara Phillips topping a poll ahead of the Ryder Cup team and Darren Clarke.

I ask you! Clarke & Co had the entire nation captivated. St Helens did brilliantly but it's a minority sport. Phillips & her equestrian buddies barely register. How could she win it ahead of Beth Tweddle? She was working Tescos in between training sessions to make end meet, she's the first British world champion in her field. I mean hats off to Zara for her achievments but there is no way she's had to make the same sacrifices as her.

Phone vote, block vote nonsense!

icLiverpool - Sheikh is not a Roman ruler

icLiverpool - Sheikh is not a Roman ruler

Bugger me...The Echo is actually worse than the fanzines you can buy outside Anfield. Do they really try and pass this off as journalism.

Given that they have a case involving child slavery currently hanging over them.

Amnesty International

Child Camel Jockey

I'm not saying this is a shocking scandal and the rednoses new owners are pure evil or anything but these links were turned up in five minutes and yet the Echo are putting out shamefully one-eyed 'articles' (Advertising Features) basically slagging off Roman Abramovich and beatifying "Sheikh Mo". I wouldn't wipe my backside with The Liverpool Echo.

BBC SPORT | Football | Europe | Porto 0-0 Arsenal

BBC SPORT | Football | Europe | Porto 0-0 Arsenal

90 mins: Now Arsenal aren't even pretending to compete. Blow the whistle ref.

89 mins: Neither team has had a shot for what seems like weeks, and news filters through from Germany that Hamburg have gone 3-2 up.

88 mins: Merciful god, please let this turgid display end.

87 mins: Guess what? More largely unchallenged passing around by Arsenal. In a minute they'll give it back to Porto to do the same....repeat to fade.

86 mins: This is reminiscent of that game in the '82 World Cup when Germany and Austria colluded to keep out the Algerians. Not that I'm suggesting any funny business.

Good job Arsenal don't indulge is anti-football eh?

Steve Claridge set to play 1,000th game

BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Bournemouth | Claridge set to play 1,000th game

Congrats to Mr Claridge...1000 games is a pretty big milestone.

Also it seems the Flintoff and the senior players all went head-to-head to Fletcher over his planned inclusion of Panesar. It's difficult to tell because maybe they thought he just wasn't ready but given the nick the other bowlers are in you can't really defend leaving out a player who you know will be dangerous.

Australia Strikes Back. | The Daily Telegraph

BBC - Radio Five Live Sports Extra - Test Match Special

BBC SPORT | Cricket | The Ashes | England crash to Adelaide defeat

BBC - Radio Five Live Sports Extra - Test Match Special

That is shamfeul...that highest ever declared first innings to end in defeat. What a sickening way to wake up.

Gutted

Top stuff

It’s a bit embarrassing really, we had visitors up from down south as they were going to the Tranmere v Peterborough game. We were sitting and having a few beers on Friday night expressing regret that the Everton/West Ham game would stop us from going over to the Wirral with them, an incredulous look was soon followed by a confused “But you are playing on Sunday aren’t you?”. A quick check of the teletext revealed the fact that we didn’t even know when our team was playing. Subsequently Saturday afternoon found us popping over to Prenton Park to see the Posh take on one of the form teams in the division above them.

Our Posh friends usually have a pretty cynical black humour about their team but now they are bouncing along because they have a new chairman…Darragh McAnthony an Irish property magnet has taken has taken over and is making all the right noises. He’s not trying to bullsh!t them about being a lifelong Posh fan, he just seems to be loving owning a footy club. On Saturday he paid for 30 coaches to take the fans up to the Wirral making for a pretty packed away end..

Tranmere were pretty sparsely supported and were easily shouted down by the happy Posh fans around us. The plastic scousers took the lead after about half an hour but Peterborough equalised on the stroke of half time and then bossed the second half until they took the lead with twenty minutes to go. Aaron McLean and Danny Crow were particularly impressive. It was a good game and Peterborough survived late pressure to go through…they’ll now want Everton in the next round to avenge their League Cup defeat.

A quick curry to celebrate then a couple more beers watching MotD.

The cricket in Adelaide is going much better then it did a week ago…nice to see the team standing up to be counted. Collingwood, Pietersen and Hoggard putting in great performances but the ultra flat wicket means that a draw is most likely result now.

Sunday's games saw a patched up Everton take on West Ham...a game played in a raging gale that neither team ever controlled. Like in the Bolton game I'd say Everton deserved to win and win we did. 2-0 with Osman and Vaughan both scoring. Brillaint stuff. Especially liked Tim Howard's celebrations after the goals and the final whistle. Everyone seemed pretty chuffed for Vaughan after what he's been through.

What a nice guy

icLiverpool - Ex-Sun editor: I was right on Hillsborough

How odd that Kelvin McKenzie goes out of his way to be an absolutely detestable wretch.

Don't buy The Sun.