Football, frankly, has never been my thing. From the early beginnings of my football experience, cold and shivering on a rock-hard football pitch at school with many other more naturally-talented football schoolfriends weaving their barely-formed skills around my big feet, I have never been a football fanatic. As far as I see it, a ball gets kicked around a pitch for 90 minutes, and it *might* go in a goal once or twice. Meanwhile, the sideshow involves who can fake injuries the best to get undeserved penalties. Where’s the fun in that?
My good friend Jac was always raving about it, and that only cemented my stance even more. Michelle is also a big fan - imagine her bad luck at landing one of the few men in the world that is anti-football. In some strange role-reversal, I sometimes end up being the football widow…
It turns out, however, that I’m not the only one. David Mitchell wrote an awesome article in The Guardian this weekend, expressing his bafflement at football’s enthusiasts. “I want a long rest from a game that never sleeps” expresses my feelings about the Beautiful Game in a way that only he can. Footballers, in my view, should down tools and take up a more worthwhile sport.
Like rugby.
TEDTalks - Top 10 talks at TED. Awesome stuff - I recommend all of them, especially Sir Ken Robinson…
Pictures From the Sky - Awesome shots. Hopefuilly not by the same person - imagine the fuel costs…
Just so you know, this is an automated recent overview of the Linkblog, a collection of interesting links I find on my travels. The archives are here: http://www.wibbler.com/tag/linkblog/
So Michelle and I visited Shunta on Sunday night with a surprise takeaway idea, and promptly found that he wasn’t hungry.
Still, Shaun and I pottered down to the local chinese, spotted a dog looking for all the world like it was driving a car (yes, DRIVING A CAR), got the chinese meal , laughed for about 5 minutes - breathless - at the dog again, and drove back. We discussed Lucy’s impending baby, Simon’s complete inability to help her at all, and how Buzz Junior is really quite a good game.
Simon also kindly dug out an x-ray of his leg break, and a fine break it is too…
Just so you know, this is an automated recent overview of the Linkblog, a collection of interesting links I find on my travels. The archives are here: http://www.wibbler.com/tag/linkblog/
A song I’ve grown to love from the very first time I heard it 15 minutes ago (!) - “Say” by John Mayer.
Disclaimer: I actually first heard it on Alex’s site.
Disclaimer: In fairness, Jac has been raving about John Mayer for ages, but I callously ignored him…
“Simon was playing football today,” Shaun told me in hushed tones. “He’s broken his leg in three places and is in the Royal Surrey.” The was a moment’s pause. If I’m honest, I was waiting for a punchline - The Hunter brothers are notoriously hilarious, and this could well have been another in a long line of pranks.
But, unfortunately, it wasn’t. Simon was holed up in the Ewhurst Ward of the Royal Surrey County Hospital, his legs in bits after a swingeing tackle against his Police colleagues. Broken in three places, for crying out loud - he never does anything by halves.
And, as it turned out, the timing leaves something to be desired. In a month’s time, his wife Lucy is due to produce a second child - leaving her with an enormous tummy, one awesomely active child and a one-legged husband. And Simon is due to graduate to full policeman duties - which will now have to be delayed for months.
I’m told Simon produced several top-class jokes while he lay on the football field, dosed up on laughing gas. “I’ve broken my leg in three places”, he told Shaun over the phone. “I’m not going back to those three places again.” He asked his colleagues if he would get sacked from the Police as he “hadn’t got a leg to stand on.” Now he’s at home, feeling a bit down and in need of phone calls and visits. As he mentioned on the phone tonight, “whenever you come, I’m likely to be here.” So, send him emails using this form and phone messages of support if you can. Brighten the little fella’s day.
Awesome - this is officially the low point in post frequency on wibbler.com! And it’s ironic that it’s another blog’s epic posts that have prompted me into action.
A month or so ago, I watched BBC Breakfast through half-closed eyes, attempting to find the will to get up. A guy of roughly my age was grinning and talking through my haze, and then he mentioned the word “blog”. It is like a technological red rag to a bull for me - this must be about geeky stuff! I sat up and listened.
In fact, it was something much more inspiring than that. Adrian Sudbury, the guy talking, has leukemia. In fact, it’s worse than that - he has two forms of it, running at the same time, making him both unique in the world and one of the unluckiest men I’ve heard of. He had been maintaining a blog all about his experiences, in order to document hope and inspiration for other sufferers when he got better. Unfortunately - very unfortunately - this eloquent, well-meaning guy had just learnt that the fight was over. He was going to die.
He still blogs - in fact, he blogs more than me (not hard), despite the increasing suffering he describes. It’s more inspiring than distressing. The blog is called Baldy’s Blog and it is in turns funny, uplifting, informative and distressing. I urge you to read and subscribe to it - before its too late.
Just so you know, this is an automated recent overview of the Linkblog, a collection of interesting links I find on my travels. The archives are here: http://www.wibbler.com/tag/linkblog/
There seem to be a load of US websites popping up giving website visitors free SMS text messages. Hell, even Google’s at it. But what about us Brits? Here’s a list of the current websites supporting free text messaging.
Kazooii - www.kazooii.com/freesms
SMS to the UK, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Philipines, Sri Lanka, Iran, USA, Malaysia, Singapore and many more countries.
Wadja - www.wadja.com
Wadja is a mobile web, media and social messaging service, managing your communication and interaction from trusted sources (friends, family and address book contacts). Requires registration.
Bloove - www.bloove.com
Goes further than other providers, allowing full web-based mobile phone management. Requires registration.
Sadly, word has reached me that Alison’s planned memorial service in London has been cancelled. It is immensely sad that this is the case.
Alison’s brother Alan has put some further thoughts here: “I thought the funeral was a wonderful send off to Alison, who incidentally was not a strongly religious person, and the Obituaries (thanks Jeremy) was another recognition of her achievements. I think that it is better now to leave her to rest in peace.
It is possible I shall turn up outside the church in case anyone has not been notified and take them off for a drink and/or a bite to eat in Alison’s memory.”
July 13, 2008
7:44 pm —
Football, frankly, has never been my thing. From the early beginnings of my football experience, cold and shivering on a rock-hard football pitch at school with many other more naturally-talented football schoolfriends weaving their barely-formed skills around my big feet, I have never been a football fanatic. As far as I see it, a ball gets kicked around a pitch for 90 minutes, and it *might* go in a goal once or twice. Meanwhile, the sideshow involves who can fake injuries the best to get undeserved penalties. Where’s the fun in that?
Awesome - this is officially the low point in post frequency on wibbler.com! And it’s ironic that it’s another blog’s epic posts that have prompted me into action.
