Month: September 2004

My mate, my best man, my taller than average friend celebrates another year on the planet. Happy Birthday Keith!

Note to our friend Stuart: Keith’s birthday is today. Mine is next month. Just so you don’t get it wrong… again*

Anyway, have a good one Keith, and as soon as I figure out what to buy you I’ll get it in the post! (I’m guessing the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD is already ordered, right?)

* Stuart once phoned me on this date to wish me a Happy Birthday. Once I’d stopped chuckling I told him he was a month early…

Yesterday I mentioned that seeing Glasgow was on my agenda for the coming fortnight.

Perhaps I should’ve checked that I could still get tickets. Arse. All sold out.

That leaves the SMS tour round Merchant City, and the Open Door Day. We’ll probably go for a wander round the Necropolis ourselves though as Louise and I share the same fascination of cemetries (for reasons I won’t go into here, and that only a handful of people know, he said, mysteriously).

You know those little suspended basket things window cleaners use on tall buildings. The ones that are suspended over the edge of the building and move slowly up and down as they wash the windows.

They should really have some sort of ‘reversing’ sound or something. That way whilst I’m sitting here next to the window, and one floats down into my peripheral vision, I might have had SOME warning and might not have thought that the ceiling was collapsing!

Man. Who?? Sorry Gert but your team aren’t looking too hot these days, dare I suggest that Mr.Keane is needing replaced? Where is the Gerrard, Vieira or Lampard for Man U? Most impressed with Liverpool last night, looks like the recent acquisitions will pay off. Owen who?

And Bayer Leverkusen prove what all football fans know, money can’t buy you everything, by beating the Galacticos 3-0.

And finally a mention for Tuesday night’s Scottish representatives, from the Guardian Football section:

“With two away games looming, Celtic boss Martin O’Neill already has one eye on the Uefa Cup. That’s the spirit.”

Golf now, the Ryder Cup looms and I have to admit that it’s one of the few golfing events I really enjoy. Hal Sutton (brash and loud) versus Bernhard Langer (professional and… well… German) is a clash of polar opposites. Colin Montgomerie is deep in the midst of a two year career slump, and as ever the stats say America will walk all over their inferior (on paper) European rivals.

And that’s why I love the Ryder Cup, it rarely goes to form. I know that at some point I’ll be engrossed in a match between Paul Casey and Chris Riley, who? Exactly!

In fact I think it’s only the spectacular failures in other golfing events that have really captured my imagination – most notably the way both Greg Norman and Jean Van der Velde contrived to lose major trophies.

So it’s nice to be cheering for a winner, to be on the positive side of things when the Ryder Cup comes along, and of course that’s why I watch sport. I don’t support a particular team, but enjoy revelling in that moment of glory and despair, victory and defeat, and marvelling at the drama of it all.

Are you a sports fan? Are you a dedicated fan or occasional viewer? Why do YOU watch sport?

No mobile phone for a few days. Possibly a good thing, but ultimately annoying.

Just got an email about our work’s Christmas night out on December 17th. It’s SEPTEMBER!

Tonight I MUST MUST MUST complete my tax return.

October 16th will see me paintballing, clay pigeon shooting and the like, before heading to Glasgow’s bars for a friends stag do/day.

I have a fireplace to build. Still. Wife not too happy at lack of progress.

That’s the problem with being an early adopter type, sometimes that bleeding edge bites back. Turns out that the USB connector isn’t accepting data connections, only power. I suggested this last week and it’s taken them a further week to confirm that I am right. Mind you the phone is only out a few weeks, the first time I phoned, they didn’t even have any of them for the support staff to work with!

So I’ll be sending my new phone back tomorrow, and hopefully the replacement will arrive before the weekend. Especially as my wife is now flaunting her just arrived, and rather smart, little Samsung E800.