Fulham Update: updated

It has once again been a long time between posts and I'm blaming the lack of through clicks on the google ad which has meant that rather than retire to a life of relaxing blogging Krystle and I have been forced to continue to work full-time, so shame on you all. That said I know you will be quite restless as when I last wrote here, Fulham's season hung in the balance but optimism was developing after a few good results. That optimism has not been acquired fool-hardedly as in the seven matches since then Fulham has sustained an unbeaten run of six matches to collect 10 pts, remain undefeated but one game at home, record away draws against league leaders Liverpool and Top 4 side Aston Villa, and hold 1-1 at home the world's richest club, Manchester City. The only disappointment during this time was 1-0 loss at Everton when a late goal cruelly robbed Fulham a share of the points. So as we approach the halfway point of the season Fulham a sitting on 21pts and hold 10th place on the table. They have also only let in 12 goals, fourth best in the league, thanks to the defensive pairing of Aaron Hughes and Brede Hangeland. They have also only scored 13 goals, 2nd worst in the league, but the general rule of the Premier League is that poor defense is more readily relegated than poor attack.

Highlights of the last 6 weeks have been the run at home, where consecutive 2-1 results against Newcastle and Tottenham gave them a much needed boost up the table from two teams whose early seasons struggles seemed to be turning around. Funniest was Tottenham's goalie Gomes dropping the ball over the line to gift Fulham their first goal in the London derby.

Having stopped adding photos cause they were always from the same angle, I recently discovered that Fulhamfc.co.uk provide heaps of cool photos after each game. I'm probably breaking copyright laws by putting the photos on here, but I will happily state these are not my photos, and I will not charge anyone to look at them so as not to profit from them. Hopefully by the time anyone realises I'll be far away in Australia.

Captain Murphy leds the boys out against Newcastle

And then scores against Paul Robinson, lucky 13!

Tottenham keeper Gomes shows his style and skill

Which only gives Fulham confidence, 2-1 3 pts thanks very much!!!

Fulham win, Liverpool stay top, does life get better than this?

v Wigan(29.10.08): The weather may have taken a turn decidedly towards winter, but a game is a game and a mid-week fixture to watch the whites take on Wigan is not the worst way to spend an evening. Despite one member of the team being absent to spend some time with his girlfriend, really some people's priorities need some serious checking, a late minute sub ensured we would not be left short in the heart of the Fulham main offensive weapon, the supporters. With Hamish absent, another New Zealander (they are everywhere over here) Chartie was drafted in. Despite not knowing the player's names or the team songs he clapped in all the right places and showed promise and enthusiasm combined with a desire to learn, enough to suggest a potential career as a Fulham die-hard.

Fulham were coming off the back of another draw away to Portsmouth, but this was a must win game if they were to avoid a season mired in a relegation battle. The Fulham lull had been softened by Liverpool's good start to the season that culminated in a 1-0 victory at Chelsea last Sunday, the first team to win there since February 04, a streak of 86 games. This has left Liverpool alone at the top of the league and optimism is high. Meanwhile, Fulham sit fourth from bottom and only one point out of the zone, undeserved as we are all aware, but the table does not lie. A late equaliser at Portsmouth gave the lads optimism coming into a game against a Wigan side beaten 4-0 at the weekend by Aston Villa.

Right, I'll stop there. This seriously in danger of turning into a pseudo newspaper report and you can find that anywhere. The important stuff is that Fulham won 2-0 last night, Andy Johnson, the smallest man in football, scored both goals, included a second-half effort that one of our four Little Andy, the smallest man in football supporters, failed to see over the height of the crowd. I can sympathise with him I suppose, but at least I saw the goal!

Speaking of short, we have an interesting mix of people around us, some of whom of thought may be worthy of introduction, including the little 'fella' folk who sits at the end of the row in front of us. He comes to every game complete in his Fulham jersey and despite the fact I not sure how he sees the whole game from his viewpoint, seems to enjoy himself. Another short guy, probably because he is about six or seven, sits behind us with his dad. He's not shy about offering his opinion, shouting out 'diver' to any opposing player who goes down in a tackle. And he had demonstrated a developing footballing tactical brain, example: Andy Johnson overtouches the ball running into goal. Goalkeeper Chris Kirkland comes out and collects the ball, only to be collected by Johnson's chase to correct his error. Kirkland stays down surrounded by players and physios concerned for his well-being. The mini-manager however has his brain whirring, then breaks into a smile, as he cheerfully announcing to anyone listening that Wigan had used all their substitutes. We all waited to see whether Kirkland would recover, or be taken off leaving Fulham a man up and facing a non-goalie in goal, but unfortunately he was ok. But the quickness and cunning of the mini-manager cannot be underestimated.

Fulham legend/traitor (edited 2.2.09) Jimmy Bullard warming up

Match action. I know all these shots look the same, but I sit

in the same place every match so its hard to get much variety

New photos to see, courtesy of fulhamfc.co.uk

Bone crunching tackle on the Pantsman

AJ scores his first of two goals

And celebrates his 100th league goal, Bullard (the traitor) is not interested

Snow Watch Report (edited accounts)

Day 357 - Still no snow sighted, Krystle is sure it will snow tomorrow.

_
_
_
Day 2258 - Slight chill in air recorded, no icy precipitation though. Krystle is shouting at the sky 'Why won't you snow, damn it all, damn it all to hell'.
_
_
_
Day 4692 - Clear blue skies, will this nightmare ever end. Krystle has begun praying (overheard promising God to become a nun if he would only make it snow today).
_
_
_
Day 5790 - Precipitation is falling, but only in the non-icebonded liquefied form. Krystle refuses to emerge from the darkened room she has ensconced herself in for the previous fortnight.
_
_
_
Day 8954 - Though it is cloudy and cold, Krystle seems resigned that it is not going to snow today. This assignment has proven to require resilience and determination beyond any normal human's capacity and we are preparing to pack up and leave.
_
_
_
Day 8954 (additional tranmission) We are leaving now, glad to be had of this place. Wait, what's that, it can't be surely. I think it is, the prophecies were true.

STOP THE PRESS!!!!

As I type this it is snowing. Yes, unbelievable I know, but true. I'm not sure what's the earliest date for snow in London but I'm guessing this is pretty early. Though summer was pretty bad, so snow in July would not have been a surprise. Now, for those who think I am making this up, I will provide some photographic evidence, keeping in mind it is night, but I think the evidence will show that it is indeed snowing.

Just like when the Germans got stuck in Russia in '43.

Snow when you look up the street . . . .

. . . . and when you look back down it too.

Krystle, looking very excited, Katie and Jeremy less so!

Merv thinkng 'Oh no, not again!'

As a comparison check out this BBC News link.

And our Spanish cousins get snow too.

Though apparently we aren't the only ones getting 'unseasonal' weather.

Paul et Robbie de la grande aventure, avec nous

So la deuxième partie ('cuse the french) of Paul and Robbie's visit to our little part of the world involved them heading off to France. They had some time in Paris, before heading down to the Burgundy region of France. But of course this blog is not about them, it is about us!

We had a half-term break, so took some time to revisit France. We arrived in Paris late on a Monday night and stayed at a hotel near the Gare du Nord, the main international rail station in Paris. It was a typical French Hotel, quaint and small but nicely set out. We took a little walk around the area, tried to order a coke from MacDonald's which was a struggle then headed back to our hotel.

We had all day in Paris the next day, so jumped on the metro at La Chapelle station. Having seen the major sights in February we picked the Opera station to get off. The weather had turned ugly though so we found a nice looking cafe and ordered ourselves an early lunch. Lunch was really good, though we were seated next to three 50+ aged Australian women who spent their entire meal complaining about everything. I gathered they were travelling together having left their husbands behind in Australia, to their husbands relief I'm sure. After wining and dining we found a little theatre place that had a presentation called 'The Paris Story' that included a minature model city (see here) and a movie presentation experience. The movie was suitably dramatic and told the story of Paris in a poetic manner that was completely different to how it would be done here or at home where the facts would certainly be presented in a much drier manner.

After the show we looked through the brochures on offer as we decided what we would do next. We saw one for the Moulin Rouge and decided to jump on the train and take a look. We got off at Pigalle station which is situated on Boulevard de Clichy, and discovered the sleaziest street in Paris. The pictures will give you and idea of the type of area it was.

What a pretty street, I wonder what these shops sell??

We walked along the street a little surprised at what we had found. We saw the Moulin Rouge but decided the prices they charged for dinner and a show were in excess of what we wanted to pay. We also visited Musee de l'Erotisme which was an education both culturally and otherwise.

The World famous Moulin Rouge, couldn't find Nicole anywhere

We found across fom the Moulin Rouge the Australian Bar, but it was shut so we got a cold drink from an Irish Bar instead and were served by a real Irishmen. It had been raining on and off through the day so we again found ourselves waiting for the rain to stop. As we come back up the street we saw the Australian Bar was open and thought it would be un-Australian not to have at least one drink. Fortunately it was happy hour, which actually ran for 3 hours, so the 5 euro cocktails needed to be sampled. I settle on the King Brown, but Krystle needed to try a few different ones to decide on her favourite. Added to this was a generous barman who took to giving us shots of something unidentified but pink and quite sweet, we rounded out happy hour very happy. We grabbed some dinner then walked back to our hotel in the coolest thunderstorm. Paris with the flashing thunder was quite a sight to behold.

Thought Nicole might be hanging out at the Australian Bar, but no luck

Below are the stores either side which show what a wholsome family
orientated area we were in

Can't read French so not really sure what they're selling

People shouldn't dance on tables, that will cause them to scuff

Blog retraction

Um, we the editors would like to make a retraction and apologise to all those who have been adversely affected by the previous blog. Ah, the mini is fine, but clearly mistakes have been made. Its not uncommon for obituaries for famous people, and cars I guess, to be written in advance so when a death is sudden the presses are ready to roll. Occasionally guns are jumped and premature declarations of demises are accidently released, as in this occasion. The mini is definitely alive and tearing up the streets of London as I write. Rest ashore the person responsible has been reprimanded, sacked and crucified and will never write another obituary again. So to recap, mini ok, person sacked.

A picture of the mini doing some heavy lifting work showing how well recovered he is from his recent adverse medically experience

RIP Merv the Mini

It is a sad day when a mini has to be laid to rest. For some mini's that day comes sooner than for others, but regardless when that day occurs you cannot help but be left with the feeling their is no God. The life of Merv the Mini, so tragedically cut short by the cruel hand of fate, was one of fun and excitment and he will be sadly missed.

Replace I with Q for a good time

The cryptic title, is there anything more challenging to the mind. A good cryptic title, makes you think, causes that furrowing of the brow, then, as the puzzle is broken, that broad smile that breaks across your face as that feeling of superiority rolls across your soul and for a moment you feel as if you belong to a special club that is only for those of the correct level of cleverness and wit. Unfortunately, this is not one of those occasions. This title is not that clever.

Instead, the title serves as a shorthand way of introducing how we went to London for the London Eye and instead ended up at the risqué puppet musical 'Avenue Q'. The London Eye is over-rated anyway, though depending on who you speak to, not really rated at all. Unable to access our tickets for the eye and finding the staff who don't speak English in England completely unhelpful, we jumped on a bus heading towards Picadilly Circus to consider our options.

By the time we arrived in Central London, we had decided to take the short walk to Leicester Square to see what theatre tickets may be available for an afternoon show. With Grease sold out we decided on a five o'clock show for Avenue Q. With four hours to kill, Krystle guided us to a cafe and bar that she and Robbie had visited the day Dad and I had been at the cricket. It was a good choice and we had a lovely lunch at a reasonable price for the area we were in. Having eaten and with the sun shining we found a pub near the theatre where we could sit, drinking a bottle of wine.

The show was entertaining . If you've never heard of it, the show is basically an adult version of Sesame Street and includes songs such as "It Sucks to be Me", "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "If you were Gay" and includes a gay character and another called Lucy the Sl*t. It is quite funny, but no where near as offensive as we thought it might be. Certainly a Nun would walk out, but I think the Priest would stay till the end. Still it was a good evening out anyway and our first show since 'Spam-a-lot'. As Krystle was promised a show a month, we are way down after our first year, unfortunately the 'Credit Crunch' has conspired against us.

The Fulham Chronicles Part IV: Despair, Luck and Cold Weather

I know, I know not really a catchy title, but the fourth attempt of any franchise is grasping around for any fresh ideas to keep the drones entertained. Not that I'm calling anyone a drone, but, well I'm sure you know what I mean. Notable examples include Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol and American Pie 4: Band Camp and it is usually hard enough to attract original cast members back. Usually characters are invented who have tenuous links to familiar favourites, but are actually pale imitations in comparison.

At least this fourth blog in the continuing tales of Fulham includes all original cast members and welcomes back from suspension perennial crowd pleaser Andrew 'AJ' Johnson, the hardest working shortman in show business (show business being Premier League football). Further, after a two week go slow in footballing terms due to international week, the average football fan has been left comatosed by the repetitive banalities of what is wrong with the Englan team. Except nothing has been wrong as new manager 'Don' Fabio Capello has led his side to four consecutive world cup qualifying victories. This interupption to normal programming has seen the most boring fortnight in football news, with the media forced to focus on news such as the spiralling debt of Premier Leauge clubs, estimated to be in excess of 3 billion pounds, news clearly of no interest to anybody.

So it was against this international backdrop that the return of the Premier League was highly anticipated by all . . . . . . . well all but my wife of course, who still refuses to acknowledge the greatness of all things football. Despite two weeks off, Fulham contrived to play like . . . . um, a stale movie franchise whose run out of ideas, ok enough with the comparisons, let's just say they weren't great. Having not won a game for a month, Fulham were in need of a result against Sunderland who boast former Manchester United great Roy Keane as their manager and a host of Tottenham cast-offs as players. Fulham had been on a 3 game losing streak and had lost in a scrappy game at West Bromich Albion with a late goal, this after a similar result in a away game at Blackburn. This game was again scrappy, but there would be no late goal, in fact there were no goals at all, in a manner of speaking.

Despite several bright periods of play, Fulham struggled to create meaningful chances and were lucky not to concede to Sunderland on at least two occasions. The first, a Kieron Richardson free kick managed to bounce off the right post, ricochet off to the left post, bounce back across the goal and rebound off the goalie, hit the post again before landing in the grateful arms of Fulham keeper Mark Schwarzer. A second half free kick went even better from Richardson, slamming into the top left hand corner. Fortunately the referee saw some interference from Sunderland players in the wall and disallowed the goal. From then on the game was destined for a draw and did not disappoint in this regard finishing 0-0.

The players warm up on the pitch before the game . . .

. . . . . . while the crowd waits patiently. They say a picture tells a thousand words and these pictures certainly do that, mainly reminding you to replace your batteries before going out or you'll end up with fairly pointless pictures!

Google - helping the little guy

I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a little company called Google. A few of you may have heard of it, don’t worry if you haven’t, that’s probably not your fault. Google is a marvellous company that dos so many great things. They have a motto, ‘Do no evil’. The last person to have this motto was Hitler, but what are the chances of lightening striking twice, virtually impossible.

Google provide invaluable community services. If you want to know the name of the movie starring 'whatsiname', you know that guy that was in that other thing with Julia Roberts, Google will tell you. If you want to find someone in the world with exactly the same name as you, Google will help you their too. If you want to trace your own online footprint, you'd start where? That's right, Google. Why Google will even help you find your way around where ever you want to go. If you've forgotten what your house looks like, Google will show you. Need some obscure, out of print, no longer covered by copyright book, Google will have it. Need to translate from or to English, Google will help you with 34 languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese. You didn't even know they were languages, did you. You do now thanks to Google. Even this humble blog is powered by Google.

But now I say, ask not what Google can do for you, ask what you can do for Google. They have already improved your life in so many ways. So to share your new found enthusiasm for this little company called Google who dares to dream big, if you see the word Google on this page please click as many times as you feel you can. Dare you dream big as well?

Fulham done at home

So I'm going to ignore the booing, jeering and name calling (who knew my wife could be so cruel) to once again write about football. Saturday the 27th of September saw a visit by cross town rivals West Ham, ironically the side that is closer to us in East London then Fulham.

Players are led out onto the pitch

Some of the players look very short!!

Fulham started with their strongest side looking for points after a 1-0 loss away to Blackburn the previous weekend. This had been followed by the same score mid week against Burnley which saw Fulham dumped out of the Carling Cup. But after two strong performances at home hopes were high for a form reversal. And for 42 minutes Fulham dominated possession and seemed easily the better side. Then in less than 5 minutes West Ham had scored twice and Fulham reduced to 10 men when Andy Johnson was sent off, and a good result seemed beyond them.

Doom and gloom hung over the ground as the second half began, but Fulham continued to dominate despite the numerical disadvantage, and within 15 minutes a Lucas Neill handball allowed Danny Murphy the chance to reduce the margin to one goal. This he duly did and Fulham were back in the game. The West Ham fans went silent as the Fulham fans exploded, rapturously chanting 'You're not singing anymore' taunting the opposing fans.

For the next half an hour West Ham were not without their chances, but Fulham seemed the more likely to score an equaliser. Chance after chance was created, by none were converted, to the eternal frustration of the 'Tourettes' afflicted fan seated next to me who colourfully shouted at every near miss. Some people are quite intense about their football.

The final whistle blew just as Fulham stalwart Jimmy Bullard thundered a free kick, the final play of the game, into the wall, disappointingly consigning the home side to defeat. 2-1 was the disappointing final result, but the game saw a side reduced to 10 men continue to play ith a passion and flair that still bodes well for a season beyond survival tactics.

Some Sad News...

Well this week has not been a great one. Poor little Merv failed his MOT test, which is essentially a road worthiness test, and it seems he has fallen into a depressive state about life at the moment. Thing were made even worse when the mechanic who took him to the MOT returned exclaiming "Why, why, why would you drive this thing?!". To which the only suitable response was "SSHHHHH!! He can hear you!". I suspect Merv being demoted to a meer roadside parking space may also be playing havoc with his sense of self worth. We've had British Gas tearing up most of the footpaths and digging holes all down the road, and unfortunately Merv has temporarily lost his driveway space, and he's taken it as a personal attack despite my trying to convice him the world is not against him. I fear that an open-air screening of "Herbie Goes Bananas" may be the only thing to bring the little car back to his former self...

Not much else has happened this week. We went to work. Went to the pub on Friday. Went to another pub on Saturday for a 30th, and Mike went to the football which I know you'll all be looking forward to hearing about. Tesco officially has a Christmas aisle, the days are getting shorter and inevitably colder. Hope everyone at home is well.

A General Update

In the interest of ensuring this does not turn into a blog primarily devoted to football updates, I thought I'd better write a bit of an update. We recently reached the end of our first year in the UK and with the new year we found a new place to live, I found a new job and we've recently acquired some new housemates. I think Mike has already mentioned about the new flat, but we're living in a much nicer area and are very happy. Our council actually spends money on community events (like markets and art festivals), so there's always something happening within walking distance. For those who are familiar with Newcastle, where we're living reminds me of Derby St in Newcastle, lots of cafes, bars, pubs etc.

As for the new job, I started work a little over a week ago as a Nanny to 2 school age girls. Basically I'm working mornings and afternoons/evenings getting the kids ready for school, collecting them from school, entertaining them for the afternoon and cooking some dinner. So far it's all going well, but there's certainly some challenging behaviour to contend with.

Threeish weeks ago our new housemates, Katie and Jeremy arrived from America. We all get along well and so far it's a happy household. We're locked in to a 12 month lease so we're hoping things continue to go well. They're both going to be studying as of next week, and like us, hoping to fit as much travel in as possible.

We're often asked what the weather's doing over here, and there's not a whole to report other than we're still waiting for Summer, and the odds of getting a last minute heatwave are getting slimmer and slimmer each day. We have had to turn the central heating on this week so it looks like it's full steam ahead to another miserable English winter. With each cold day we console ourselve with thoughts of an Aussie Christmas...

I'm assuming most people are aware of this, but for those who haven't heard my little sister Alison, along with her partner Pete are expecting a baby in 6 weeks. Very exciting for my family. Other than that, nothing much else has happened in the world of Mike and Krystle. We've very much fallen into a routine of going to work, coming home to sleep and then drinking too much on the weekends and wishing we hadn't and vowing never to go out drinking with the Kiwi's anymore... but such is life, we'll never learn.

Fulham go back to back at home

So the Premier League season has, as you well know, kicked off strongly. You no doubt have been on the edge of your seat following the latest comings and goings, will he or won't he , regarding player transfers. Ronaldo to Real, Ronaldinho to Man City, everybody to Chelsea, the rumours never stop.

In the meantime Fulham, my new almost favourite club, have being quietly going about business rebuilding the team after the disastrous managership of Lawrie Sanchez almost saw them relegated. Current Boss Roy Hodgson is a well travelled and experienced manager who has bought well and from the last game seems to have got the balance of a good side. But in order to avoid fighting for relagation again this season, they don't need to beat the Arsenal's of the league, they need to regularly beat sides like Saturday's opponent Bolton, another who also just avoided been sent down last season. Fulham had recieved bouyant news when star midfielder Jimmy Bullard got a call up to Fabio Capello's England Squad for the World Cup qualifiers that had so rudely delayed my return to the Cottage.

You'll notice, of course, that I'm not patronising you by explaining all rudimentary details, because I know you all will have felt the passion and excitement of the win against Arsenal and thought, talked and dreamed of nothing but football since. Oh, you haven't . . . . my mistake then. Ah, I guess you probably don't care that Fulham best Bolton 2-1 then. And played them off the park in doing so. You couldn't care less about their fluid passing that was wonderous to behold. Don't need to be told that Jimmy run the midfield like a seasoned international to the strains of a chant that declared he was 'better than Steve Gerrard/Frank Lampard (what are the odds that so many great midfielders have rhyming names, not interested?) and come to our corner of the ground to take a free kick and humbly acknowledged the standing ovation his very presence demanded. Not too interested in hearing how Bobby Zamora, a golden child of the Championship Manager series circa 2000, is showing the sort of form that made him a stand out when playing the ultimate Football management simulation at the turn of the century. Non-plussed that new signing Andy Johnson, in his first start for the whites, is looking a complete bargain at 11 million pounds in only his first game since his summer move from Everton, or that Danny Murphy, clearly enjoying the new personal at the club, laid on some exquisite passes that completely opened up the Bolton defense, or Aussie Mark Schwarzer solid and reliable in goal. Ok then, sorry, won't be mentioning any of that. Shame, was a good game, maybe if you were there, no . . . . . . . right, no problem, I'll just go then. But before I do, let me just say

C'mon You Whites!!!!

Paul and Robbie's Big Adventure ........ starring us

In May we had our first international (and possibly only, it is such a long way) visitors when Robbie and Paul arrived. Some reference was made to their visit in a blog a few back which has been accused of damning them with faint praise. So let me just say from the outset that it was great to see them, share some of our experiences over here and have some lovely meals out. They landed early in the morning, but managed to summon the energy to come and visit us that afternoon for a meal, a short 3 hr drive across London, what a welcome. We took them to the White Horse in Chadwell Heath, one of our favourite pubs, good food and if you’re lucky a little Asian guy will come and sell you DVDs that seem possibly pirated, but I’d err on the side of supporting local business and giving the little guy a fair go. Robbie and Paul got the chance to see where we have been living, my school from the outside at least, and Paul got a driving experience of a lifetime when he took the mini for a spin, under my watchful eye of course. ‘But what cannot be denied, at least not by anyone who's actually had the privilege of driving one, is the towering engineering achievement that it represents ‘ and “doesn't leave you disappointed, even a little bit. If you don't want one, you're probably dead’ are some of the superlatives offered to describe other less notable cars and Paul was clearly no less impressed, even offering to swap the rented Merc for the duration of their stay. Krystle however, and to a lesser extent Robbie, was having none of this and in view of the fact Paul bounced the Merc off a gutter driving back through sheer exhaustion we were glad we didn’t take him up on his offer, and extra appreciative of the effort they had made.

Somebody looks a little jealous

They made another trip out to visit us later in the week and we took them to an Indian restaurant that Krystle and I had visited for her Birthday. The food is excellent, but strangely whenever we had gone past the place at maybe one or two people in it. We later discovered that he gets busy around 10pm, so why they sit open the rest of the day, including lunch, I don’t know.

Over their first weekend in London we visited Paul and Robbie and stayed with them at the apartment in Kensington at which they were staying. We went to a show with them, Monty Python’s Spamalot, which if you like Monty Python’s movie The Holy Grail you would enjoy the show. We went to Robbie and Paul’s favourite pizza restaurant that they always visit, several times, when they come to London, called Da Mario which was delicious. Robbie and Krystle made a trip to Notting Hill Markets, while Paul and I sat out at the cricket at Lords for many hours hoping the rain would stop. It didn’t, but Paul was still able feel for almost the first time the wonderment and exhilaration of a London Underground experience. Having hired a car each time they have been in London, Paul and Robbie have missed the mode of transport that defines London and its inhabitants.

The famous Lords pavilion

and the famous Lords UFO (actually the media centre)

And the covers stayed on

Despite the rain the day was not a complete washout (ha, ha) as we saw 8 overs of play, visited the museum and walked back to the tube station via the setting of the cover for Beatles last album, Abbey Rd, which is just around the corner from the cricket ground in St John’s Wood. It was fun to watch the tourists re-enacting that famous walk across the road, particularly as it is quite a busy road.

I don't think the guy in green realises that he is about to be hit by a car

The famous Abbey Road studio (so many famous things in one day)

The wall outside Abbey Road. People write messages on the wall, generally addressed to the Beatles or more specifically John Lennon. Every so often the wall is painted and the messages start again.

On the Sunday Paul and Robbie headed off to Hertfordshire for lunch with friends and Krystle and I decided we would stay around London for the day and then met up for dinner. After being dropped in Oxford Street, we jumped on the tube heading for the Natural History Museum but ended up at the Victoria and Albert Museum instead, so close! Anyway, it was quite interesting, though vast and some parts were a little strange, the metalwork collection being possible a little too much. You would really need to love iron being put into shapes to spend a long time in this area of the museum.

C'mon Fulham

Having been an SCG member for a few years now, experienced the F1 in Melbourne and the Indy Cars on the Gold Coast, visited Lords twice, really my only other unfilled dream remained seeing Premier League football. This, you may remember, was achieved last November when we went and saw Fulham play Blackburn. But to be honest this only partly fulfilled my dream. At the age of 10, as Craig Johnston made his way on the world footballing stage, I bought a second hand copy of Shoot magazine at a school fete and become a Liverpool fan. They were the pull out poster team for whatever month the issue was from and that poster adorned my bedroom wall throughout my childhood. I remember watching Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in the 1996 FA cup final which began my love of watching football in the middle of the night. One of the coolest, but slightly strange things about livng here is watching sport during the day, more convenient, but lacks the self satisfaction you get from the effort you need to put in to be able to follow your team from half way around the world. Which brings us back to Fulham, which isn't my team. Nor is Blackburn for that matter. So, the reality of Premier League football was only partly fulfilled by our visit in the Autumn. The team I most wanted to see was Liverpool. Hamish, who I work with at school, is also a big Liverpool fan. He managed to see Liverpool play against West Ham, but unforunately Liverpool lost 1-0. When Liverpool made their away visit to Fulham's home ground, Craven Cottage, the cost of 240 pounds for one game was prohibitive. But when Hamish and a couple of his mates, Blunt and Little Andy, dreamed up the idea of becoming season ticket holders at Fulham, the chance to see Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and big name players like Lampard, Torres, Gerrard and Ronaldo, live seemed to good to miss. So the four of us have become season ticket holders and will be able to see up to 2 games each month, travel plans allowing.

v Arsenal 23.8.08


Fulham's home season kicked off against front running team Arsenal. Arsenal lead for much of last season, but ultimately finished 3rd. Still, they have a young talented side, while Fulham have looked to rebuild their team after almost being relegated to the next division last season, only a last day victory from 2 goals down saved them. They had also lost in the first game of the season to Premiership virgins Hull, 2-1. As the other guys (the self named Geezers) were pre-disposed at the Reading Festival, Krystle come for her second and possibly last?? game of football. I had told her if the score was 4-0 to Arsenal at half-time we might leave early, and I was expecting an easy victory for the visitors. Instead, we got a close and thrillingly tight contest that ended with a surprise, but ultimate;y deserved victory for Fulham. As we were sitting with the Fulham diehards, it as hard not to get caught up in the emotion of a victory over their more successful London rivals. If the rest of the games this season are as good, it will have been money well spent.

From our seats looking down the touch line. The guy standing up in a suit is
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson

Surprise scoreboard

The seats are located in the corner, but close to the ground

Looking across the stand at the hopeful Fulham faithful

And here are some videos to give you an idea of atmosphere and how we see the action

CARNAGE AS NORTH SHORE SLASHING BEGINS

I know this want matter much to anybody really, but I felt I needed to share this quite important piece of information. Some peoples lives may be shattered by this, while others will sit back wearing a self-contented smug and wonder if the inevitable fall in house prices will allow them to purchase a property just a little closer to the promised land. I am of course talking about this:

"PEOPLE have been fretting in the letters page about where Sydney's North Shore begins and ends. My dears, some advice: if you have to ask, they don't want you living there. But let's get it right. The North Shore begins at Boundary Street, Roseville. It runs up the Pacific Highway, and about two kilometres either side of it. East of the highway is far tonier than west. It ends at Burns Road, Wahroonga. Full stop."

Those who have mistakenly bought properties based on your belief that the locality was within the hollowed boundaries, I offer my condolences. Those who have aimed to work their way up the ladder and point out that in all likelihood you are now further away then when you bought your house. The economic impact may very well bring the Australian economy to a halt. That's what you get for voting Labor.

Jack Johnson in Barcelona, jealous? We know you are :)

We tend to cop it a bit because this Blog is so sporadically updated, or so they say. THEY claim that we hardly ever write anything on here and THEY say that we can go months without an update, and yet here we have our 3rd in 2 days. And as the charter of this blog clearly states that updates will only occur in months starting with the letter A enjoy it while you can because there will be nothing again until at least Actober! Also we do this for free which is hardly an incentive to update that often, maybe if we got paid, maybe through advertising, hmm on to something here (insert subliminal message: click on google ad please). If that has worked properly, then we have made a lot of money and will happily update this blog daily if that's what it takes. Woke up, raining again, caught the train to work. Train was late, again. See, scintillating tales from suburban London. That said, we are just about one year in this country and we have made 26 completed blog posts, which is actually about one every two weeks. Pretty good going really. That equates to about 13000 words, which if laid end to end would reach from here to the moon . . . . maybe.

As the title alludes ever so subtly to, at the end of June we flew to Barcelona and saw Jack Johnson, live, in concert. And it was great. We jetted into Barcelona for about 24 hrs. Our Ryanair flight was at a reasonable 9.oo am, so we didn't have quite the 3am start that has plagued other trips. The first problem occurred when we arrived at the airport and realised that our ATM card was at home. Now we don't need to go into who's to blame for this, it really isn't important. Let's just say that the party responsible has been severely reprimanded and has been put on notice to improve their performance or face immediate dismissal. Luckily we had some left over Euros from our last visit to the continent, but knew that we would have to really on credit cards in a country that neither of us spoke the language. The next problem, really a continuation of the first was that although Ryanair tell you they are taking you to Barcelona, which is here, they actually land somewhere completely different, actually just about here. This is one of the joys of Ryanair where for what you pay that just about get you there. It was going to cost us to travel from Girona to Barcelona about 50 Euros, and we only had 70 Euros on us. Faced with a dilemma we decided to hire a car. While a little more expensive it was a great decision, though when I first jumped in the car and realised everything was on the wrong side, I don't think either of us were convinced. Particularly as the car was a manual. We took a leisurely route to Barcelona, avoiding the bland motorways that so blight the countryside and reduce every trip in every country to a single common experience, without charm or appeal.

The view of the countryside from our car, it got even better once we hit the ocean road, just trust us on that. Notice the clear blue sky though.

We instead found ourselves meandering down the Spanish coast on a bright, sunny summers day. We learnt several things on this trip. 1. Spain is a beautiful country 2. We would like to go back to the Costa Brava region again 3. Spain is much warmer the England and 4. Spain has road side ladies . . . of the night, during the day. And they get to sit and shade themselves. Must have a good union.

We arrived in Barcelona in the late afternoon and managed to find our way there without having or causing an accident, going the wrong way through a roundabout, having the aid of a GPS or speaking even a single word of Spanish, very impressive. We found our Hotel and had a look around the streets of Barcelona.

The castle wall behind our hotel. This picture was taken from our room.


One of the back streets that seem to maze their way around the city . . . . . .

before you stumble back upon a main street. Remember to look left as you cross!

The highlights here included attempting to park in the smallest car spaces ever seen in a car park, a very nice dinner in a little Spanish restaurant that had what looked like preserved meat carcasses hanging from the ceiling, the completely naked man walking down the street who had some people stop him to take a photo with him and then the realisation that we needed to go to Jack Johnson, but really had no idea where it was. Actually, that's not entirely true. We knew it was in Badalona, which we had seen signs for on our drive into the city. We knew it was being held at the Olympic Basketball Stadium, we knew that we didn't know where that was and we knew we didn't speak Spanish. I did ask at a information booth in Barcelona, but obviously all those working here when Barcelona held the Olympics back in 1992 have been sacked or moved on to bigger and better things, because they had no idea. Spain and Basketball actually have a bit of a chequered relationship - check here and here, so maybe they just didn't want to be associated with the sport.

We decided to drive to Badalona and just drive around until we stumbled on the right place. That would work at Homebush because there is nothing else at Homebush, but as we stumbled off a freeway exit to Badalona, that at that point I thought may have been the wrong exit, we weren't entirely confident our strategy would pay off real quick. Plan B was quickly enacted, whereby I went to the first servo I saw and tucked in with the intention of covertly looking up directions in a street directory and using it without paying. Unfortunately service stations in Spain don't sell maps. So I needed to ask the attendant, or representante de servicio al cliente who spoke no English. I flashed him my ticket, he gave me a knowing look that suggested I wasn't the first nor would I be the last dumb foreigner to require his assistance, calmly led me to the window at the back of the store and pointed across the street. Success!!

The show was great, the first act we particularly enjoyed. He's name is Mason Jennings and I've included a few links for those inclined to listen to good music.
- Be Here Now
- Jackson Square

The second support act was G Love and the Special Sauce, which were about as good as the name suggests. Here some songs to check out anyway, but we found the lead singer, G Love himself, really, really annoying.
- Cold Beverage
- Baby got Sauce

Jack was very good, though a little hard to see through the thick haze. In Spain, the 3rd World country that it is, smoking inside is still allowed and the venue was a smogged filled, gasping for breathe experience that leaves you wondering how anyone thinks smoking in public venues was or is ever a good idea. That aside we had saw a really good show, and so can you if you want.
- Angel/Better Together
- Go On
- Sitting Waiting Wishing
- Rodeo Clowns
- Good People
- Banana Pancakes
- Times Like These

The show was was also notable for the oppressive humidity, the like of which we haven't experienced for almost a year now. Actually, the next day when we flew out, was our first day over 30 degrees since Bangkok last August, and still our only day over 30 despite the season being summer. Because we were really only there for the one night we only had a cursory look but it looks like a very beautiful city and we are most keen to go back again.

Note: our camera run out of batteries early in our trip so we didn't end up with many photos, another reason we'll need to go back.

Two Australians walk into an Irish Bar, and the Barman says . . . . . . .

Our second sojourn of the summer has been another revisit of sorts, bit of a theme here, as we took the opportunity of 1p flights to head back to Ireland, this time to Cork. We actually stayed a little outside of Cork, quite close to Blarney, in a small township called Killeens. Because our flight was so cheap, we had a 6.20am departure, which meant leaving here at 3.00am. And of course being summer, no, no rain, but it was chilly and foggy. We arrived in Cork and had a day to explore.

A bubbling brook in Cork (no the lamp post is not sticking out of the water)

Beautiful sunny morning in Cork looking up the River Lee

After a very nice breakfast at a pub we found, we took a bus tour around the city. Cork is actually a series of marshy islands that have been built over to make the city. Many of the streets run along waterway paths that have been built over and turned into streets. We were keen to have a look at the old goal, and found it very interesting. It was originally a mixed prison and then just for women. It was closed in the early 1920's but today remains as a demonstration of how it used to be. The goal uses lots of wax models and has an audio accompaniment that give you a lot of interesting history and a good idea of what the goal was like.

The main entry to the goal

The goal has turrets like a castle, looks really impressive, a far as goals go

People used to be punished in the goal by walking in a circle until they got dizzy. That'll learn 'em

No it didn't, so they tried this method instead. Here a young Max Mosley experiences his first beating, delightful!

Krystle was tired from being up so early, so found a place to have a quick nap

We also had a look at the butter museum, which was actually more interesting then it sounds, and it is recommended by the financial times. We actually went in their because Cork weather is just like London weather, and it had changed from just about to rain to actually raining, and we didn't feel like getting wet.

Our accommodation was quite isolated, but still very nice (click here). It was also quite close to a hotel which had a nice bar. We found ourselves there on the Friday night and amongst a Football club trivia night. I (correctly) anticipated a large number of Irish questions, and having never finished worse then second in Trivia decided my record was not going to be destroyed by some local knowledge questions. We wouldn't have won, but we wouldn't have come last either. We did enter the raffle though, Krystle's first for an entire year and won a bottle of wine. We later had to pay 20 Euros (20.00 Eur=33.8843 Aud - XE: the world favourite currency site 19.8.08) to check a bag in for our flight home, necessitated by the ludicrous 100ml limit in carry-on luggage. Apparently if you take a bottle of wine on the plane, then ask for a cork screw to open it, the cork screw could be used as a weapon to take over the plane. Still a fun night was had and that's the main thing.

We enjoyed Cork and the surrounding areas, but did find it all quite expensive. A pub lunch with a bottle of wine cost 43 Euros (43.00 Eur=72.8584 Aud - XE: the world favourite currency site 19.8.08), a bottle of wine cost 19.95 Euro (19.95 Eur=33.8097 Aud - XE: the world favourite currency site 19.8.08). We found that we may have found somewhere to eat and drink more expensive then London. We normally pay around 7-10 pounds (about 15-20 dollars) for a pub lunch/dinner wine, so the prices being asked seemed a little high. We had also had a rip-off of a taxi trip. After walking into Blarney in the morning, about a 5 and a half km walk, we got a cab out that cost us 10 Euros (you can do the Maths by now surely). As it cost us 12 Euros to get from Cork it seemed steep. I paid with a 50 though, so I think he was punishing me for that.

What is it???

No, really, no one is quite sure. The town of Blarney is offering a cash prize to anyone who can tell them

How much further do we have to walk, aren't we at Blarney yet?

Another early flight, this time 8.10am so up at 6.00am, we arrived back in London to, you guessed it, rain.