Tuesday, December 19, 2006

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.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

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

Monday, December 11, 2006

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

Monday, December 04, 2006

It's a funny old game

and when the luck is with you.

Arsenal returned to winning ways with yet another 3-0 victory at the Emirates stadium on Saturday, in the first North London derby to be held at the new ground.

An exciting opening saw chances for both sides and biting tackles asd the importance of the fixture shone through from both sets of players.

Arsenal took the lead as Toure cleverly stole in ahead of Dimitar Berbatov on the half way line and lofted the ball through to Adebayor who had just managed to stay onside.

Catching the Spurs defence very square and very high up the pitch, Adebayor raced away before calmy slotting past Robinson.

The game remained in the Spurs half for the most part, Spurs making occasional dangerous breaks especially down the right hand side with the speedy Aaron Lennon.

The turning point in the game was Referee Graham Poll's decision to awar Arsenal a Penalty as Rosicky and Chimbonda tangled as the Czech player burst into the box, first viewings appeared to be conclusive to it being a foul, a second and subsequent third look from alternative angles show the unlucky Chimbonda clipping the ball away first before catching the already falling Rosicky.

Who is to complain, Gilberto having taken Henry's responsibility with the Captains armband strode up to fire into the corner for a 209 lead at half time. The scoreline being deserved but perhaps the circumstances not so.

Spurs looked even less sharp in the second half and Arsenal continued to dominate the play, the introduction of Walcott, Hleb and Baptista re-inforcing the Arsenal attacking intent before Van Persie latched on to a through ball knocked the ball ahead of the chasing defenders with an arm before being felled by Jenas for another penalty.

Gilberto buried the spot kick in the opposite corner sparking celebrations from the Red side of North London.

On to Porto Wednesday a point is all that is required to see Arsenal qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.