Update

Yes yes, it's been a while since the last post, what can I say I am a busy man, honest.

So in the last few weeks or so, work has been a little frought, I have been to the London Book Fair and manned the stand for a day, which was actually quite interesting and enjoyable.

Our friend J has had her hip operation, repairing the damage caused by the broken foot (how unlucky can one person be). So she is back on crutches having spent an absolute age on them after the foot op. Am hoping to see her soon and whell her down the pub or something.

This weekend was quiet on Saturday with L out all day seeing her Nan, though she was back in time for us to head off to a variety of Public Houses in Alton for beers. Ending up in the White Horse, which was nice.

Sunday, up early, sorted a few jobs and then off to Marwell Zoo, near Winchester. Four hours of walking around in the sunshine that had supposed to have been cloud and rain was brilliant.

So slumped onto the sofa for a relaxing rest of the afternoon (watching the Arsenal beat Fulham at the emirates on TV) followed by more slobbing about until I cooked our roast about 8pm.

Popped out at lunch time today to get some new passport photographs done, it must have been one of those days though. Both machines I found had the last laugh on me, and £12 and two sets of hilarious but unusable photos later, I think I will try the machine in Alton instead.

The work golf tournament starts again after work Wednesday so am very much looking forward to that. I will post my score etc Thursday morning.

Tonight, Liverpool v Chelsea, could be interesting, I don't recommend a bet either way this time, though have a horrible gut feeling that Chelsea might sneak through.

Typical of me, I now have two paintings on the go at the moment, will attempt to finish one tonight and will see if my new phone will connect to my pc tomorrow to update with pics.

Thats me for now, I will return.

Long weekend

L and I took the Friday and Monday off, and we busied ourselves as the sun shone.

Friday my Mum and Dad came up and we went over to the Suit Hire shop to get Dad into his suit for the wedding. All went well and he looked grand. We then headed to The White Hart in Holybourne for lunch, which was fantastic, I thoroughly recommend a vist.

Friday evening was spent in our usual haunt of Reeds, where L and I put the world to rights over a couple of beverages.

Saturday: L was out part of the day so I chilled out. Our friend J came round in the evening and I cooked up with Quorn Fajitas for us.

Sunday: Off to Hayling Island, weather was fantastic, pitch and putt was a good laugh.

Monday: L out with her Mum during the day so I popped to town to do a few jobs, then cut the grass. Evening over to the Queens for our dinner and to see the owner who also runs the Disco that we are using for the Wedding, food was fantastic.

Tuesday: I went upto Earls Court to attend the London Book Fair as my Company have a stand there each year, a long tiring day but always interesting and great to demo the new product and chat with Customers.

First golf of the year

Having watched the Masters over the Easter weekend and with the weather being so fantastic, it was time to dig the golf clubs out of the cupboard and get back into the swing of things.

G and I went over to Hoebridge to play the Shey Copse course that we play our work competition on, course unsurprisingly was in really good condition, but despite that the Shey Copse course were still using mats for the tees, hopefully that should change soon.

A shared bucket of balls on the range and we were ready to take on the course, it was quite starnge to out there again, I really cant believe where the Winter has gone especially now it's April already.

Anyway a great start as I chipped in on the first for 2 and the opening birdie of the year. Slightly loose on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th with 6,5 and 4 scored, before a solid 5 iron and PW to to 15 feet on the 5th left me a nasty downhill breaking putt, which I had originally been happy to get close, I holed for another birdie. 2 over after 5 holes.

Then came my nemesis hole, the 6th, on the face of it it is not really difficult, and I could really play it more simply than I do simply by taking a 3 iron off the tee. But no, buoyed by the birdie at 5, the Driver came out and I pushed my tee shot into the very sparsly populated trees. Chipped back out, PW over the back, chip back on two putts for a 6.

The 7th currently has major work being caiired out on the green and therefore a temporary "green" is in place. I say "green", because it's grass is the same length as the fairway and through use is actually in worse condition than the fairway. Almost impossible to take seriously, so we didn't.

8th is similar to the 6 a longish straight hole with trees either side of a fairly generous fairway. Teeing off of the Red tees, as they were grass rather than mats, we gained ourselves 30 yards, and I hit my drive of the day, a 3 wood that stopped 4 or 5 yards short of the green. A chip on, and leaving myself a donwhill 15 footer managed to sink it for another 3.

9th I misread my put for par so finished with a bogie, 3 Birdies in one round of technically 8 holes I was pleased with that, there is work to do, but with the competition beckoning, all is looking good for Team Mooseblaster.

M

4 Day weekends

Rock.

Well that was a nice long weekend, and to make a pleasant change for Easter the Sun was shining and it was actually very warm.

Thursday started the weekend well, with a 4pm finish and across to Archees for a beer or two before heading home and a night in snuggled up on the sofa with L and a bottle of wine.

Friday evening saw us head to Reeds in Alton with our friend J, a most enjoyable evening indeed.

Saturday was spent wandering around town with the afternoon in the Garden, L was off to Fareham for a friends 40th Birthday, travelling down in a pink Limo, I stayed put and watched the golf with a few beers.

Sunday lunch with L and J in Prezzos and a few beers in the Wheatsheaf. Monday evening to L's Mum's for the Easter get together.

All in all a top weekend. Thankfully I am off Friday and Monday so this week is only 3 working days.

Golf after work Wednesday, time to dig those fab Mizuno MP32's back out of the cupboard.

New phone working well, should get the software loaded soon so will be able to update blog with more pics, new painiting under way which is going ok.

M

Farting preacher

As seen on totally viral on Sky, it's the farting preacher.

http://www.fartingpreacher.org/index.php?action=showgal&cat=25

You will need sound on your pc, and if you are anything like me, a box of tissues to mop up the pure tears of joy and laughter.

Perhaps a little childish, but then humour is a bit like that at times.

Enjoy

I'm back...

Ok so it's been a while since my last post, but then hey some of us work for a living.

I trust that you have all been behaving yourselves in my absence, I of course could not possibly comment.

Well it has been a real sod of a couple of weeks all round really.

I have been absolutely up to my eyes in work, hence the lack of posts, and Arsenal have endured a miserable run of luck and form.

Bright notes of the last few weeks though are that I have a new phone and service package which (once the software is installed on my pc) will enhance the images on the blog, (as it has a 3.2 megapixel camera) and will save me some money.

Lets get back to the football.

Mr Wenger rightly decided to stick with the youngsters, that had performed so magnificently to reach the final, and a few older heads.

The game started brilliantly for the Arsenal with Theo Walcott scoring his first senior goal for the Gunners. He and Abu Diaby exhanged passes and the young England man strolled through to place a curling shot past Petr Cech.

Arsenal remained firmly in control even after Didier Drogba equalized in the 24th minute, a flighted ball over the top saw Drogba on the very cusp of being offside, he controlled and blasted the ball in off the unlucky Almunia.

The game ebbed and flowed, but as time went on the Arsenal youngsters started to tire and Chelsea became stronger, the game punctuated by niggly fouls by Chelsea. But with inside ten minutes to go Arsenal hopes were shatterd as Robben's curled cross found a leaping Drogba who powered home a header for his second of the game.

Could the Arsenal respond, sadly no, each break was met a strong and not always fair challenge by the Chelsea midfield, more niggly fouls, tempers were beginning to fray. And then it happened. Kolo Toure ghosted into the Chelsea half and past John Obi Mikel, only for the Ivorian to be tugged back and all hell broke loose, Toure, unhappy with Mikel's attentions confronted the Chelsea man to forcefully remonstrate with him, Eboue collected the ball ready for the free kick only to have it knocked out of his hand and away by Wayne Bridge, Eboue reacted and pushed the Chelseas left back in the head, causing Bridge to collapse to the ground as if Iron Mike Tyson had unleashed one of his best shots. Almost every player was involved in either pushing and shoving or calming the melee. Once the referee regained control, the cards were dealt out as if in a casino, Mikel and Toure were sent off for the original tussle, Adebayor somehow was picked out of the crowd and sent off, Fabregas and Lampard booked.

Adebayor, rightly unhappy at being sent from the field, refused to go quietly, an astonishing end to a fascinating cup final with Chelsea winning 2-1 and with Arsenal having has two men sent off.

Arsenal then proceeded to lose to Blackburn's only attempt on target over the two ties in the F.A. Cup, then conceded a late goal to PSV to go out of the Champions League also. Three games, none of which Arsenal really deserved to lose, but that is, as they say, football.

Shuffle those feet

I am now the proud owner of an iPod Shuffle, which I must say is a brilliant little thing, honestly it is tiny and is 1gb so can hold 240 or so songs, more that enough to get me to work and back.

I recommend them to all.

Arsenal having a good little run of things of late, great comeback against Wigan last Sunday winnign 2-1 and a superb though slightly wasteful performance against Bolton in the FA Cup last night. A derserved 3-1 victory after extra time, left Allerdyce typically complaining about something or another, he is not on my list of fave people.

How on earth Anelka managed to stay on the pitch I just don't know, Arsenal broke away with Jaaskelainen in the Arsenal box having gone up for a corner, Anelka chased Adebayor into the Bolton box and as the big Togo striker was about to pass the ball into an empty Bolton net Anelka pulled him down. Let me clarify, Anelka, launched himself from behind, two footed, wrapped his legs around Adebayor and brought him down.

So a professional, two footed tackle from behind in the box and Anelka was the last man therefore denied a clear goal scoring opportunity, so there will only be four reasons to send him off then, and Chris Foy only booked him pah.

Anyway we are through to play Blackburn this Saturday, which I have tickets for, which is nice.

Up the Arsenal

Kind comments indeed

Though of course the one of the Gentlemen relaxing on the beach I have to remind people I did not draw personally, simply painted.

My friend T has set me a challenge of creating a painting from one of his many excellent photographs, follow the link here to his various web pages http://www.zen75802.zen.co.uk/index.html pictures are here http://media.mildewhall.com/.

It certainly seems as though my work will be cut out, he has given me three printed black and white line drawing copies of head shots, which as we all know are not my strongest point, never mind, never one to refuse a challenge I will give it a go and see what happens. I may get time to start this evening, but will keep posting updates as I go.

Gallery of Paintings so far....

Excluding the one that is in the post below of course.

Finished Painting

I finally got round to finishing the painting I started before Christmas, things have been quite hectic throughout January what with Birthdays galore and evenings out etc.

So here it is, again not perhaps as good as I had hoped it would be, but I am pleased never the less.

Have time on my hands again this evening so am planning on starting a new painting.

Will keep you up to date with it's and my progress, comments as always are welcome.

Weekend

It was L's birthday last week, so come Friday I arranged for us to go out as a surprise.

All she was told that we were going by taxi at 7:45pm and that she should wear something comfortable but not jeans.

The taxi arrived, I made sure that the driver didn't mention where we were going to her, to prolong the surprise.

She figured it out quite quickly, but was still nice when we pulled into the Grange Hotel. http://www.altontruffles.co.uk/menus.html

Our friend is currently the Acting Head Chef there, so he had kindly noted in the booking diary that we were friends of the chef.

Arriving inside we chose to go the bar for a drink where we were treated to a complimentary glass of Champagne. The menus were bought over and we started to choose from which of the set menus we were going to eat from.

We settled on the three course meal rather than the gourmet 7 course menu. The Somelier bought the wine list over and said that our friend would like to buy us a bottle of wine to go with our meal, and that we should not worry about the cost, so we settled on a bottle of New Zealand Cloudy Bay, which due to it's difficulty in sourcing was £50.

We were shown through to our table, the restaurant was very quiet indeed, which helped add to the romantic atmosphere.

Having chosen our respective starters, main courses and desserts we settled down at the table still sipping champagne and the wine.

Our first course arrived, a Carrot and Swede soup appetiser, served in a cup the size of an expresso cup, which was the first of our additional courses courtesy of our very generous Head Chef friend.

Next to arrive were our actual starters, I chose the Scallops, having never had them before, L chose the Ham Hock and Foi Gras terrine, both of which looked and tasted superb.

Next to arrive was a oak smoked chicked wrapped in pancetta, another additional course, it was served with artichokes and a sweet tasting chutney, again very good indeed.

Main courses, L chose the Fillet of Beef with a herb crust, I chose the venison.

An apple sorbet cleansed the pallet and then our desserts of Chocolate Fondant with Praline ice cream arrived.

All in all a fabulous meal, portion sizes were immaculate along with the flavours, style and service.

We retired to the bar for coffee then a quick pint and a vodka and coke for L before the return taxi arrived at 10:45 to take us home.

Anybody who lives near(ish) to Alton should definately pay the Grange a visit, it is an eating experience that cannot be re-produced in the area.

Enough about food already I am starved.

So came the big game Sunday afternoon as Manchester United became the next challenger of Arsenal's unbeaten home record at the Emirates.

A slow start by the home side allowed the visitors to comfortably control the ball for the first 15 minutes Arsenal solidly defending and United probing and passing well.

Arsenal came back into the game as they regained more and more of the ball and looked continuously dangerous, Henry firing a short straight at Van Der Sar then latching on to a perfect ball from Adebyaor, but the Arsenal skipper could only direct his header into the waiting arms of the keeper.

0-0 Halftime, and quite an even game.

The second half was even until Patrice Evra overlapping down the left wing strode away from Fabregas to centre, the ball flicking off of the ever impressive Kolo Toure and stright into the path of a lurking Wayne Rooney who stooped to head brilliantly home past Lehman, could the unbeaten run be in danger.

Arsenal plugged away as United dropped deeper, Carrick and Scholes generally marshalling the midfield, but with Hleb, Flamini, Fabregas and Rosicky looking lively and dangerous.

Mr Wenger waited until 20 or so minutes to go before replacing Hleb with Robin Van Persie then Flamini with Baptista.

The equalizer came following good work from Rosicky who's cross evaded the leaping Henry and the lunging tackle of Ferdinand, Van Persie who had been still at the edge of the box as the ball was crossed, overtook Neville to meet the ball perfectly and fire high into Van Der Sar's net, giving the goalkeeper no chance. An 83 minute equalizer and the unbeaten run was saved.

Van Persie unfortunately fractured his 5th metatarsul whilst scoring so will be absent for around 5 weeks or so, a crule blow for a young man who's form had been ultra impressive this season.

Arsenal were in the ascendancy, and pushed for an unlikely winner. United were defending deep and when in the 93rd minute Rosicky and Eboue combined to rob Scholes, Ebouse's one-two with the Czech international sent the right back away and past Evra.

Eboue's pin-point cross cut out both Vidic and Ferdinand and Thierry Henry who had been mostly anonymous, met the cross perfectly and powered his header past Van Der Sar. 2-1 a brilliant result and thanks to Adebayor back in September, the double was completed over the old enemy.

Roll on Wendesday's Carling Cup Semi Final first leg game against Spurs.

Amazing isn't it...

The press have torn Rafa Benitez and his Liverpool team to shreds after their amazing 6-3 Anfield thumping at the hands of an extremely youthful Arsenal side in the Quarter Final of the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

The Gunners ,who in every round have fielded a team of youth and reserve team players mixed with the odd returning First Teamer, tore into the reds at the famous old ground with Julio Baptista slotting home four times to set up a semi final against Spurs at the end of the month. Benitez chose to make changes from the team that had lined up against and lost to Arsenal three days earlier in the FA Cup, but to no avail. Liverpool's 6 full internationals struggled to counter the movement of Arsenal's attacking players with Jeremie Aliadaire turning in another supreme performance as her ran Palletta ragged on the right hand side of the Liverpool central defence.

Almunia was outstanding in goal, and was incredibly unfortunate to have let in 3 goals, Dudek looked to have lost his confidence after the perfomance in the F A Cup, as time and time again Arsenal threatened his goal.

Aliadaire opened the scoring latching on to Kolo Toure's excellently flighted through ball, the young Frenchman expertly bringing the ball down and prodding goalwards all in one movement, Dudek blocked the initial shot only for the ball to fall kindly for the Arsenal striker who stabbed home.

The lead lasted barely five minutes as Almunia smartly pushed away a free kick only for it to be returned by Garcia for Fowler to cheekily back heel past the Spanish stopper.

After a lengthy stoppage which saw Mark Gonzalez receive treatment then be stretchered off, Arsenal re-took the lead with a typically Brazilian finish from Baptista, who expertly curled home a 25 yard free kick leaving Dudek a mere spectator. Song added a third as Hypia's clearance from a corner rebounded in off the Cameroon youngster and then Baptista and Aliadaire teamed up to add a fourth before half time as the Frenchman raced on the Baptista's throughball (although offside) before cutting the ball back to the Beast who had continued his run into the box slotting into a empty net.

Baptista missed his opportunity to score his hattrick after Hypia felled Aliadiare in the box, but soon made amends as Aliadiare tricked his way past Palletta on the left wing before find Baptista with an inch perfect pass, Baptista struck a low curling shot from 23 yards into the corner.

Back came Liverpool, firstly through a typical Gerrard strike volleyed past Almunia and again through Hypia and as the pressure mounted on the Arsenal defence Hoyte's long clearance was collected by Aliadaire who strode past Palletta again this time on the right wing before centering for Baptista to finish into another empty net rounding off the scoring with this fourth of the game and Arsenal's sixth.

Next comes Blackburn away, who will be looking for revenge after their recent 6-2 mauling at the Emirates.

Not a great deal is happening elsewhere, am organizing a trip Go karting at work for Monday 12th February and am very much looking forward to that.

Apart from that things are a little quiet Social life wise at the moment, currently experiencing a cash hangover from Christmas.

Our hoover stopped working properly recently and after e-mailing the vax help desk we decided not to pursue it anyfurther and so yesterday I picked up our new hoover from Argos; a Dyson DC08 Base, which I must say seems to be brilliant and currently half price at £119.99 so definately recommend that you all get one.

Happy New to one and all

I know just how much you have missed your update of everyday drivvel from Elias Mooseblaster, well now I am back.

Christmas and New Year went without a hitch which handy, loads of fun had by all, few visits to and from the Family and a couple of eventful evenings in the local. L has now discovered her maximum wine intake in an evening which was amusing.

Got some really handy stuff for Crimbo, waterproof golfing trousers, golf magazine subscription, some kitchen stuff, new jumper and some cash (which is going towards my beautiful Mizuno MP32 Irons that I bought before Christmas).

New Years eve was good fun too, normally we try to avoid the pubs etc as they are a bit too busy and loud for our liking, and wouldn't you know it, full of people who are out with the sole intention of getting plastered. Our friend J invited us to her house for dinner, a few drinks and some games. We were joined by her Boyfriend T who had finished his shift at the Grange where he is a Chef. Lots of beers and laughs were had before we settled on heading home at about 4:30am.

Suffice to say we were late rising on New Year's day.

The last week or so have been about saving cash and settling back into working. Thankfully we were mostly eased in with a 4 day week last week, but things have been surprisingly busy hence the lack of blogging.

Arsenal had a good Crimbo only failing to pick up any points from an untidy affair at Brammal Lane against Sheffield United and rounded off with a 3rd F A Cup victory against a strong Liverpool side at Anfield.

Mr Wenger says the he is not looking at bringing any new players into the club during the tranfer window, lets hope that the 9 or so players we currently have missing through injury all return soon.

Still haven't finished the painting as yet and am hoping to meet with my musician friend K at some point soon for some guitar tips etc.

Will keep you all posted

M

The Ashes are lost

England manage to set a record for the shortest length of time a side has held the Ashes for after Australia convincingly won the thirs Test in Perth on Monday.

Chasing a huge target to win the game, England's middle order again failed to fire as they were bundled out for 300 or so.

Alistair Cook's 116, Kevin Pietersen's 70 not out and Andrew Flintoff's powerfully struck 50 were not enough and the last 5 wickets fell quickly and cheaply.

England's only hope now is that the Australians take their eye of the ball and manage to win the final two tests to make the series a semi-respectable 3-2.

Arsenal v Liverpool tonight in the Carling Cup quarter final, Arsenal's thrid away trip of the competition so far and their second visit to merseyside having defeated Everton in the previous round.

Mr Wenger is likely to play a similar side to that night against the Toffeemen, with the likes of Aliadaire and Walcott in the starting line up. There should be a return to action for full back Lauren, who has been missing for around a year after a serious knee injury.

Liverpool are likely to rest some of their stars but have perhaps a little more strength in depth in their squad, it could make for a very interesting game indeed.

Am hopeful to finish my painting over the next few days

here is where I got to so far, I will post the finished picture here too.

Decisions decisions for the next project my colleague "A" has suggested I have a go at something original which I may very well do, stay posted for an update on the next one.

An Arsenal away win and the Ashes

Arsenal finally picked up another away win by beating Wigan at the JJB last night. Emmanual Adebayor hitting a late winner against a resiliant Wigan team, who had created the majority of the better chances in an entertaining encounter.

Arsenal host high flying Portsmouth at the weekend and Mr. Wnger will be hoping to capitalise on two good results. Rosicky should be available again after his hamstring problem but Henry and Gallas appear to be unavailable until the New Year due to injury.

England had their best bowling day of the Ashes tour so far when they bowled the Australians out for just 240 odd, Monty Panesar becoming the first English Spinner to take 5 Wickets at the WACA. England ended the day 52-2 with Collingwood and Strauss the men at the crease.

My Ex-girlfriend R got in touch with me by letter on Monday, which after 12 years was a very strange feeling indeed. Anyway she seems very well which was good to hear. She got married in 1998 and has three children now. The really great news is that I think that we have both really benefitted from this and feel that we have managed to tie up a few loose ends that we didn't manage to do when our relationship ended. I very much appreciated her efforts in getting in touch and wish her well for the future.

Talking of the future the countdown to L and my Wedding in August 2007 continues at pace, Christmas and the New year are just around the corner and then we can start to tick the months off. Still a few things outstanding to sort out, arrange for a DJ, finalise the food with the Hotel, sort some music for whilst the guests are waiting for us in the room that the ceremony will be held in. Getting excited now and cant wait for August (wishing my life away again).

Sales, Marketing and Customer Services Christmas Party tonight, so we are all off to Las Iguanas on the South Bank in London. Looking forward to that should be great fun.

That's all for now I think. Roll on 5pm

Catching up

Been a few days since I last had the chance to Blog.

Typically nothing contraversial to report, the Work Christmas party went well for the most part, I along with the majority of people I have asked had a good time.

The Magician was a bit late getting to the venue, the excellent Hoebridge Golf Club, (the more observant of you will of course notice that the party was at the same golf course that the Company golf games are played.) and a few of us missed the last bus from the venue back to the station, but we sorted a taxi so no harm done.

Arsenal drew with Porto last week to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, then drew with Chelsea on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, a goos result tho Arsenal could have taken all 3 points but for an outrageous long range effort from Michael Essien five or so minutes from time.

England step back upto the plate in the 3rd Ashes test match, starting Friday morning at 2am, England are currently 2-0 in the 5 match series and need to win or to draw to keep their Ashes dreams alive.

Crimbo shopping over the weekend which is always slightly difficult for me as I am not a big fan of wandering around the shops at the best of times even less when there are thousands of other people all doing the same, nevertheless we had a top lunch on the Friday and chilled out over the weekend, including a rather nice evening in the White Horse on Saturday.

More to come tomorrow (possibly).

M