Snow Day, must be time for an update

Ok, so one small update since the end of October is poor. That's quite obvious to all. I won't waste time offering excuses, except to say a fair bit has happened in the last few months that is completely fascinating and worthy of many blog posts, except there will only be one. And this blog is bought to you by our sponsor (no, not google, that's our other sponsor, not that anyone seems to care) Snow Day, giving the humble worker a day off since Feb 2nd 2009. Need a long weekend, they organise snow to shut down a whole city for as long as you want. Currently London is beset with the worst snow storm in 20 years. This means that it is cold, a little wet and extremely pretty to look at. It snowed a few times lightly yesterday, but heavy falls overnight ensured a winter wonderland greeted the new working week. I was up early with the intention of getting to work earlier than usual, but arrived at Leytonstone station having walked through deep snow to find the tube suspended. I quickly received two phone calls that gave me my first ever snow day. Apart from a brief respite this morning it has snowed all day, so hopes are high for two in a row. The last time we got snow Australia did too, but I think the reports of 40 degree plus temperatures make the parallel weather unlikely this time.

So what has been happening. Well I guess I'll start with the football, which continues in its never-ending fashion. Since the last blog, written just before I left the UK for our Australian sojourn, I have been to one more match, on Saturday just gone. I missed two games while away, a 3-0 win against Middlesborough and a 2-2 draw against local rivals/enemies Chelsea. A Boxing Day 0-0 draw against Tottenham meant we finished the year in the top half of the table. They then lost two away games against West Ham, 3-1 and Sunderland, 1-0, struggled in the FA cup against non-league Kettering and sold their best player Jimmy Bullard to Hull. A frozen pitch on January 10 meant my return to Craven Cottage was delayed until this weekend. And there was to be no disappointment as Fulham ran out 3-1 winners against relagation bound Portsmouth. To be fair, Portsmouth are a reasonable team, having won the FA cup last season, but they have been on a slide since their manager left to join Tottenham and they appointed former alcoholic and Arsenal stalwart Tony Adams, who has not proven particularly successful, a point that was sung to him in a little ditty called 'You're getting sacked in the morning' which satirically suggests that he is about to lose his job, very amusing stuff!

In other stuff to happen we travelled to Australia to work on our sun tans. You won't read about that here of course as this is our London Adventure blog, duh! In other news we found out that Krystle is pregnant, which I suppose does come under the London Adventure umbrella. We are both very excited and if you're lucky Krystle may write a blog about the whole pregnancy experience. Below are some scans:

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.

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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'.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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