Showing posts with label Cardiff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cardiff. Show all posts

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Is This A Dream Week?


I woke this morting and the lasting image from my dreams was interpretive dance versions of  Terry Pratchett's novels "Mort" and "Cardiff City vs Preston North End". Yest I know the second one is a football match and not a novel but this is one of my dreams and it wouldn't be a dream if it made any sense would it. This is the first time I mentioned Terry Pratchett on this blog although I' never got into him , though I enjoyed "Mort", that was it, but I know I was in a minority the

Last night I was feeling wrecked, I was heading towards another Diabetic hypo (3.8) and was in bed for nine. Today I am not really looking forward to work as I have an annual donkey work task that I will be lucky to finish today, but I will do it, so maybe that was on my mind.

Last night I watched Ben Wheatley's take on JG Ballard's "High Rise"  which is a flawed masterpiece in my opinion, very 1970s and the buildings look simply monstrously awesome from a distance, but the soundtrack featuseds both Can and Amon Duul II and an awesome take on Abba's "SOS" by Portishead. I can't find this officially available anywhere but found this wonderful Youtube montage from the film soundtracked by the Portishead take.

Saturday 15 February 2014

Tom Finney A True Great

Sir Tom Finney
Yesterday was Valentines Day and we lost one of the greatest footballers of all time, a hero of mine, and a Preston and England legend. He was 91 , and a perfect gentleman and exemplified dignity and how to conduct yourself, as well has having a good sense of humour.

He never swore but was no pushover and when the mercenary football authorities uprooted the National Football Museum from it's home at Deepdale he told them they couldn't have his memorabilia. I'm sure it gave them more room for for their Coke and McDonalds advertising.

There will be far better obituaries than I could ever write , so check out the Preston North End Forum , the Preston North End site , and the BBC , there will be many more.

The thing is he left a huge legacy and I just love Bobby Robson's stories of him. An excerpt from his book is displayed on the right.An exemplary servant to Newcastle United.

Football today is all about money, with very few loyalties manifesting themselves. While I agree you have to make money in order to provide the entertainment, now clubs just see fans as cash cows, managers are expected to produce instant results and if they don't they are often sacked immediately.



My Tom Finney Shirt
Sometimes even if a manager has done well he sacked after a run of recent bad result. Recently Swansea dispensed with Michael Laudrup's services, Fulham dismissed Rene Meulensteen, Cardiff got rid of Malky Mackay and we're probably not finished by a long chalk. A list on the BBC is here.

These are all Premiership dismissals basically because club owners are scared of not being in the Premier League . The Championship is going the same way due to parachute payments, so League 1 and League 2 are the highest leagues where you can see real competition, where teams play on a relatively level
playing field.





Tom Finney's memory is a shining beacon that people today should emulate but  too many just look for what they can get without regard for others.


Saturday 18 August 2012

The New Football Season Starts Here .... Well



..actually it started last night with Cardiff City easing past Huddersfield. Most of the media have focussed their attention on the Premier League despite this only being 20 clubs , and Sky especially doing their usually fawning brown nosing over whoever they think has money , so this season it's Manchester City , with Arsenal , Liverpool , Manchester United and the rest rest are therir to make up the numbers.

Last season they were soooo disappointed that Newcastle United did not implode as they had continued to do under Freddie Shepherd , Mike Ashley despite his continual publicity gaffs managing to get it right where it matters earning the grudging respect of most of the Newcastle fans.

After the plummetting fortunes of Preston , for the first time on Monday night Graham Westley got a standing ovation as his totally rebuilt team beat Huddersfield in the Captal One Cup.

So looking forward to another roller coaster season and who knows what may happen. Theres bound to be the odd controversy so we have to have a Half Man Half Biscuit Song to finish. Full lyrics here:

Monday 1 June 2009

(S)crappage

Scrappage ... Is it even a real word? This must rate as the most idiot waste of tax payers money ever. Supposedly to help the (British?) Car Industry. You get a couple of grand off a new car if you scrap that one one you've kept on the road for the last fifteen years or whatever? Apparently 35,000 people have taken this up , so that's cost us £70m in payouts to car companies for discounts that you could have got with a bit of negotiation anyway!! Then there's the cost of trashing the old car. Recycling?? , will probably end up as landfill.

And the killer punchline .... you can trade in against a new Skoda, Fiat, Ford , Renault , Peugeot etc because we dont really have a British car industry any more !!

I'm keeping my 16 year old Renault Clio until it drops , then it can go for scrap . That's a far greener and more cost effective option.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

No One Loves You When You're Down ... Especially A Mackem

Well Newcastle's season finished with a whimper , hardly able to muster a shot on target against an Aston Villa side who've lost their way since Christmas , but still managed to qualify for Europe. Newcastle suitably shot themselves in the foot via a horrendous deflection off the apparently aptly named Damien Duff.

We watched the match is Tynemouth and most fans were totally resigned to the capitulation they saw in front of them.

A couple of weeks ago a Newcastle fan said that he was annoyed that Preston had pipped Cardiff to the final play off place as he had been looking forward to an away match down there !! Be careful what you wish for now he has Cardiff and Swansea to look forward to.

As we went for the train we saw this Tyneside In Bloom display which sort of sums up Newcastle's season!!