Happy birthday

I've had a wonderful couple of days (I like extending my birthday for as long as possible - it started on Friday with drinks) and received some lovely presents and good wishes. I'm a very lucky girl. Also, this delightful sight was in place of a traditional cake;




Most importantly this post marks my return from a lengthy hiatus, the reason for which is unimportant. All that matters is that I'm back with big ideas and plenty of motivation. Hurrah!

National Poetry Day

It would be terribly remiss me of me to not take advantage of the opportunity to introduce you to my favourite poem;




Whate'er is born of mortal birth
Must be consumed with the earth,
To rise from generation free:
Then what have I to do with thee?

The sexes sprung from shame and pride,
Blowed in the morn, in evening died;
But mercy changed death into sleep;
The sexes rose to work and weep.

Thou, mother of my mortal part,
With cruelty didst mould my heart,
And with false self-deceiving tears
Didst blind my nostrils, eyes, and ears,

Didst close my tongue in senseless clay,
And me to mortal life betray.
The death of Jesus set me free:
Then what have I to do with thee?

Enough is enough

I've made a decision. I'm going to Weight Watchers. I joined a few years ago and had a reasonable amount of success, which I can hopefully repeat this time around. I have the motivation of some too-tight clothes hanging in the wardrobe but I'm going to "borrow" an idea from Shoestring Alley by putting aside £10 for each lb I lose. By my (admittedly terrible) maths, that could add up to at least £280. Gosh.

Wish me luck!

A new investment

I know, I know... I'm not meant to be buying things but when it's a pair of shoes as classic but stylish as this, I think we can make an exception;



I've always been a little wary of almond-toe shoes for fear they look too clog-like, but these are a reasonably subtle point so hopefully won't date too quickly. The rest of the shoe is completely classic and, by golly, are they comfy.

What's that? How much? Crikey, is that the time? I really must dash...


(Ornate by Dune £80, also available in suede and patent leather. Yum.)

Gimme gimme gimme

My conclusion today is that society is greedy. I don't know if it's always been that way, I'm only 31 years old and Homo Sapiens has been around considerably longer than that. I also don't know if it'll ever change, but frankly I doubt it. Why am I saying this? Well, aside from the ever-present assault on our benefits system, there have been 2 things that have caught my eye this week.

Number 1: the introduction of the Times paywall and the furore about it. God forbid people should have to pay for news. Y'know.... as people have been doing for years and years without quibbling. Now The Times is my favourite paper. It's expensive (£1 during the week, £1.50 on Saturday and a staggering £2 on Sunday) but it's informative, un-sensationalist (if that's a word) and the sports page are excellent. I like the personal finance section on a Saturday as, so far at least, I've not seen any glaring errors or ommissions. And the Sunday Times helpfully doubles as a doorstop. So have I paid for it? Yes of course I have, because I enjoy it and I don't expect to be given a quality service for nothing.

Number 2: This article on the Beeb saying that 59% of people surveyed for the ONS Social Trends Survey think that the Government's responsibility to ensure that pensioners have enough money to live on. WHY? Why is it not the individual's responsibility to build up a decent pension pot during their working life? The same survey found that 31% of pensioners rely on State pension benefits. Some of these pensioners may have good reason, but the lack of personal accountability bothers me. Is it laziness? Arrogance? I remember when I was 20 and out of work for 3 months, I signed on and my mother was furious with me - "No one in the family has ever claimed anything from the Government" she yelled. I can't remember exactly what I was awarded for those 3 months but suffice to say that, as a higher rate taxpayer now I've more than repaid what I "borrowed" to see me through a tricky patch. And surely that's what it should be? A safety net for when best intentions fail or fall short. I've nothing against the State pension at all and I think it should continue to be paid to all pensioners regardless and shouldn't be means-tested. But people need to be responsible for their own wellbeing as well. Look on the State pension as a bit of a bonus. A bit of extra spending money perhaps. Not a god-given right that gives you immunity from providing for yourself.

I've ranted, haven't I? I really do find it quite infuriating though. Grrrr.

Best. Interview. Ever.

My favourite journalist interviewing one of my favourite performers... Caitlin Moran parties with Lady Gaga. Lucky mare.

Catching up

Holidays are great but for some reason whenever I leave the country I completely fail to keep up to date with developments. A bit careless considering that when I left England for Germany last week the whole leadership of the country was in question. I should perhaps have learnt my lesson when I went to Cyprus in September 2008 and returned home to find out that Lehman Brothers had been placed into administration and RBS were in a little spot of bother.

So now I'm back and I understand that we have this historic coalition government. David Cameron is PM with Nick Clegg as his deputy. I'm actually rather excited by this development. I'm all for new experiences so having 2 parties in control sounds like it could be quite interesting. I'm also excited because I've had a quick read through the Coalition Manifesto and it all seems to be incredibly promising. I realise that making these promises and keeping them are two very different things, but we're allowed to be optimistic. Cameron and Clegg strike me as men who are keen to do well, and in order to do well they will need to achieve what they have promised. If the Lib Dems do well, they could earn more support from the electorate, possibly to the extent that they would be a serious contender for a majority government in the future. I wonder if perhaps the Conservatives failing to achieve a majority this time around has put the willies up Cameron, so to speak, so he'll be working his socks off to increase the Tories' lead in future. Either way, I think the country will be the one to benefit, and that's never a bad thing.

More Final stuff

But only because this from the Telegraph website is humourous and warmed the cockles of my heart;

Fulham's players probably don't need much motivation ahead of Big Vase final, but in idle moments (the 23 hours a day between 5.18pm and 4.18pm the following afternoon) the Fiver can't help but wonder what kind of speech their manager will give them before tonight's game. Unless he trips and sends the tray carrying his players' lovingly made half-time brew flying, it's difficult to imagine Roy Hodgson smashing tea cups off the dressing-room wall, so we reckon he'll go for a bespoke variation of Al Pacino's inch-by-inch speech from Any Given Sunday. Except without the swearing. Or the examples of self-loathing. Or the Rs.

Despite what pompom-waving fantasists like Clive Tyldesley or Andy Gray would have you believe, tonight is probably the first time in decades that an English football team goes into a European match backed by the genuine good wishes of almost everyone in the UK with a passing interest in football. "We've all been surprised and overwhelmed really, with all the support we've had," said people's prince and the king of all our hearts, Danny Murphy, dabbing the corner of one eye with a perfumed hanky.

Meanwhile in the the role of panto villains, Atlético Madrid are the side charged with shooting Bambi's mum despite winning just two out of 14 matches in Europe this season. Unfortunately for anyone hoping for mercy, the Spanish side will be packing more artillery than Sgt Eugene Tackleberry in a Police Academy climax: with Diego Forlán partnering Sergio Agüero up front, it's probably fair to say Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes will earn their corn. "The most important thing is that we perform well and win – it doesn't matter who scores," said Forlán, whose La Liga heroics have won him enough golden boots to shoe a centipede, albeit one that's had many of its legs amputated in the wake of a serious accident involving an inquisitive toddler.

While there can be no doubt that Atlético have the better players, only a fool would bet the farm on them beating a tireless, hard-working, patronised side that has already accounted for teams such as Roma, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, Wolfsburg and Hamburg in this campaign. "If you were to ask me 'are you taking the game seriously? Do you really want to win? Have you prepared as best as you can to win? Will you be giving your all on the night? Will your players be doing everything in their power to win the game?', then the answer's 'a big, big yes'," said Hodgson yesterday, to an old German lady who had asked him for directions to the toilet.

Tonight at Hamburg's Nordbank Arena, a well-read, softly-spoken man who looks like an owl has a chance of orchestrating the end of Fulham's 131-year wait for a trophy. Inch by inch, play by play until it's over. A certain purveyor of weak, tasteless lager don't do motivational tub-thumping dressing-room spee … oh. But theirs features Steve Davis and some shoe-gazer from Kasabian, so we'll stick with Al Pacino and Uncle Roy.

(reproduced in full because of the boring bit about John Terry's injury that never was)

A night to remember - part 2

We may not have won but by golly it was amazing. How many football fans get to experience a European final firsthand? I hope the memories of the camaraderie on the coaches, the occupation of a square off the Reeperbahn and the atmosphere inside the stadium will stay with me forever. My videos didn't come out with sound but hey, that's what youtube is for;



And the opening ceremony;



It's not clear but those flags being waved each have the badge of all of the teams that competed in the Europa League this season. It still brings a tear to my eye. The pride that I feel for my team, my little football team, is absolutely enormous.

Up the Flumps!

A night to remember - part 1 (of hopefully 2)

I'm utterly speechless at the moment. From 0-1 the boys came back to win 2-1 and earn a place in the UEFA Europa League Final to be held in Hamburg on Wednesday 12th May. It's not quite sunk in and I still get a little choked when I read anything about it. Craven Cottage Newsround linked a great video of highlights and it's turned me into a Cheshire cat.

Tickets for the final went on sale yesterday and I've bought two - 1 for my uncle and another for me or someone else to go with my uncle. Why not definitely me? I'm due to fly out to Turkey on May 12th. But this is the chance of a lifetime! This'll only happen once! You're right, but my Nan paid for this holiday so I need to make sure she would be okay with me missing a day or 2. I'm sure she would but I'm worried about seeming ungrateful.

Look at it though - look!



How spectacular. Thursday night's semi final second leg will stay with me until they carry me out feet first and whether we win or lose the final it'd be a superb night and one that I would never ever forget.

And one last picture...

A moan about the media

This story on the BBC's website has annoyed me somewhat. There seems to be some subtle hint, some suggestion or inference that this perhaps wasn't the tragic accident the coroner has ruled it was.

I should maybe mention that I feel slightly protective as Jessie was actually in the year below me at school and we were quite friendly during my last 2 years or so.

But still...

The eyes have it

Or not. I was quite interested by this story about organ donation and how many people don't give permission for their corneas to be donated. 1.2 million. That's quite a few. The reason this caught my attention is because I'm one of them. I'm registered as an organ donor although I selected to donate everything except my corneas and my heart. I've been blessed with good eyesight and, so far, haven't developed the need for glasses or contact lenses. In my case it's because I'm horribly squeamish about eyeballs. Even pictures of eyes make me feel quite sick. And don't get me started on the ad that's currently on telly which has loads of eyeballs on sticks walking around (that is, people dressed as eyeballs - still bad enough thank you very much).

And the heart? I was born with a congenital heart defect which, although now fixed, probably means they wouldn't want that organ anyway. Interestingly, the article goes on to say that the heart is the second least popular organ to donate.

Thing is, now I feel a bit guilty. If we all refuse to donate our corneas and hearts there will be a shortage. Well there already is a shortage but maybe we could reduce that if we weren't squeamish or worried about symbolism or whatever. Is that fair? To ask someone to trade their beliefs to give the gift of life? Tricky. And not a question I think could be answered satisfactorily.

Testing the water

I make no bones about my lack of political knowledge and my ignorance of all things fashion related but I figured it was about time to proffer my views on one or t'other. In fact the Daily Mail has enabled me to cover both in one post by providing this comparison of what the Party Leaders' wives are wearing.

I'm not sure what percentage of the electorate vote based on the sartorial choices of the spouses of the candidates but I reckon on this evidence I'd vote Conservatives. Mrs Cameron looks chic, classy and her outfits contain nods to current fashion. That surely bodes well for the way her husband would run the country, n'est-ce pas? Mrs Brown on the other hand looks a tad frumpy, especially in that cardi-and-belt combi. I'm getting bad austere vibes if Gordon Brown is permitted to continue his Premiership.

On a serious note, I do wonder why national newspapers feel fit to comment on what The Wives do/wear/eat. It's not them that will be running the country or making decisions that will shape our lives for years possibly even decades to come. Do voters care what footwear they choose to wear? Would the wrong choice honestly swing the polls towards another party? I can't see it. I realise this may be slightly wishful thinking - who wouldn't be disappointed if their fellow citizens felt it acceptable to judge a political party on such irrelevant points?

Instead we should be judging them on things like this - Iain Dale (a Conservative candidate) posted an article on his blog on how many promises Labour made in their 1997 manifesto which they have failed to meet. 27. That's quite a lot. And they were promises on quite meaty, important subjects such as unemployment, education, tax and inflation.

But would the Conservatives have fared any better? Or indeed the LibDems or one of the smaller parties? It's tricky isn't it? I don't have the time to scour each of the party's manifestos so how do I know who to vote for? The Telegraph offered a mapping quiz to test where in the political spectrum you sit. I'm not sure how accurate it is - the possible answers were "Yes", "No", "Open-minded" or "Skip question", but it didn't offer a "Depends" option which was my instinctive response to some of the questions. But it's given me a better idea of roughly where I should be looking - and it includes the smaller parties which is brilliant.

This year the election will affect me more directly than before - if there is a change of power, it is highly likely that my employer will change. Hopefully my day-to-day role will stay the same but I could be looking at a new location, new working conditions or more. Whether it's just that, or the fact that I'm getting older and realising how important these things actually are, my previous apathy to political events is slowly sliding away and I find myself almost excited.

The curse of the Manager of the Month

.... or is it? I'm having a lazy day today ahead of settling down to watch this afternoon's FA Cup semi-final so I thought I'd do a bit of research.

Someone on Cottage Corner asked why we did so badly in March and my automatic response was "Roy won Manager of the Month for February". But how much of a curse is this award? In the words of Harry Hill, there's only one way to find out. So here for your delectation are the winners of the MOTM award for the 2009/10 season so far and the results of the following months' fixtures.

August – Harry Redknapp, Tottenham
12.09.09 Tottenham 1 - 3 Man Utd
20.09.09 Chelsea 3 - 0 Tottenham
23.09.09 Preston 1 - 5 Totttenham (Carling Cup)
26.09.09 Tottenham 5 - 0 Burnley

September – Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester Utd
03.10.09 Man Utd 2 - 2 Sunderland
17.10.09 Man Utd 2 - 1 Bolton
21.10.09 CSKA Moscow 0 - 1 Man Utd (Champions League)
25.10.09 Liverpool 2 - 0 Man Utd
27.10.09 Barnsley 0 - 2 Man Utd (Carling Cup)
31.10.09 Man Utd 2 - 0 Blackburn

October - Roy Hodgson, Fulham
05.11.09 Roma 2 - 1 Fulham (Europa League)
08.1109 Wigan 1 - 1 Fulham
21.11.09 Birmingham 1 - 0 Fulham
25.11.09 Fulham 3 - 0 Blackburn
28.11.09 Fulham 1 - 1 Bolton

November – Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea
02.12.09 Blackburn 3 - 3 Chelsea (Carling Cup)
05.12.09 Man City 2 - 1 Chelsea
08.12.09 Chelsea 2 - 2 Apoel Nicosia (Champions League)
12.12.09 Chelsea 3 - 3 Everton
16.12.09 Chelsea 2 - 1 Portsmouth
20.12.09 West Ham 1 - 1 Chelsea
26.12.09 Birmingham 0 - 0 Chelsea
28.12.09 Chelsea 2 - 1 Fulham

December – Alex McLeish, Birmingham
02.01.10 Nott Forest 0 - 0 Birmingham (FA Cup)
09.10.10 Birmingham 1 - 1 Man Utd
12.01.10 Birmingham 1 - 0 Nott Forest (FA Cup)
23.01.10 Everton 1 - 2 Birmingham (FA Cup)
27.01.10 Chelsea 3 - 0 Birmingham
30.01.10 Birmingham 1 - 1 Tottenham

January – David Moyes, Everton
06.02.10 Liverpool 1 - 0 Everton
10.02.10 Everton 2 - 1 Chelsea
16.02.10 Everton 2 - 1 Sporting Lisbon (Europa League)
20.02.10 Everton 3 - 1 Man Utd
25.02.10 Sporting Lisbon 3 - 0 Everton (Europa League)
28.02.10 Tottenham 2 - 1 Everton

February – Roy Hodgson, Fulham
06.03.10 Fulham 0 - 0 Tottenham (FA Cup)
11.03.10 Juventus 3 - 1 Fulham (Europa League)
14.03.10 Man Utd 3 - 0 Fulham
18.03.10 Fulham 4 - 1 Juventus (Europa League)
21.03.10 Fulham 1 - 2 Man City
24.03.10 Tottenham 3 - 1 Fulham (FA Cup)
27.03.10 Hull 2 - 0 Fulham

March – David Moyes, Everton
04.04.10 Everton 2 - 2 West Ham

I have to say that I'm not convinced. Look at Everton after Moyes won the award for January - they beat Chelsea and Manchester Utd. Admittedly both at home but I watched the Man Utd game on the telly and Everton really did display some quite special football.

Birmingham got through 2 round of the FA Cup and picked up 2 draws in the league after Alex McLeish was crowned MOTM for December. One of those FA Cup wins was against Everton at Goodison Park - never an easy tie.

Chelsea is probably the best candidate for supporting the view that the award is a curse. Two wins at home (against Fulham and Portsmouth - both "expected" wins), 1 defeat away to Man City and 5 draws, including against West Ham which most people would probably have thought Chelsea should've won comfortably given West Ham's form this season. Being held to a 3-3 draw at home to Everton probably wasn't one of Chelsea's finest hours either. (Everton seem to be cropping up a lot in this "study" one way or another).

So Fulham.... well that's a tricky one. In November we took 5 league point from a possible 12 and got beaten by Roma and the Refs. Not brilliant. In March we took no points from a possible 9, got beaten quite convincingly by Juventus and missed out on a trip to Wembley. All that alone would suggest to me that Roy does seem to be a victim of The Curse.

But then on 18th March this happened.



And for that reason, together with my ever-so-scientific research above, I can't quite bring myself to buy into the curse nonsense.

Flumps 2 - Wolfsburg 1

Yup. Wolfsburg. Current champions of the Bundesliga. Their current season perhaps isn't as successful as their last, but we can't detract from the fact that last season they were really very very good.

As we get (got in some cases) further in each competition I get more nervous. Is it that we're playing tougher opponents? Possibly not, that would be unfair on the likes of Roma who we faced in the group stages. Is it because there's more to lose perhaps? Well that's not strictly true either. What is there to lose other than a jam-packed schedule tiring out the players and providing a distraction from the league? It's the hope, the dream... dare I say the expectation that we can get through another round and show the world that we're to be taken seriously. Finally. This week Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Fulham played in Europe, yet Fulham was the only English team to win a game. How d'you like them apples eh?

There was an article about the Juventus game in the (award-winning) matchday programme last night by David Roodyn and he signed off with something so exquisite it brought a lump to my throat and made me proud to be a Fulham fan;

"No one is laughing at us anymore. Of course, we have survived in the Premier League for nine seasons, but on this night of nights we became the toast of football. It does not get any better. Or does it?."

It could. It really really could.

The Move

Done. Finally. There is still some unpacking and tidying to do but the heavy lifting and multiple trips round the M25 are at least out of the way. I'm nervous but I'm enormously relieved - I can now start living a normal-ish life without constant stress.

Well, after Easter weekend which will be spent painting my house ahead of the tenant moving in.

(Apologies for the brevity of this post. I'm quite poorly and extraordinarily tired. Normal service shall resume shortly.)

Things happen for a reason

You may (or may not) have noticed the url for this blog is happensforareason.blogspot.com. That's because I firmly believe in this. That's not to say I believe in Fate and that we can't change our own destiny - of course we can. But things happen to enable us to make decisions, to take action and to direct us to changing our lives into what we want them to be. Ooooh... deeeeeep maaaaaaaan.

But anyway, I spotted this news story and thought of you.

Oh my, I really have been very deficient haven't I? In my defence I have been quite busy with preparations for The Move. Things are going well so far, at least they are at my end. Anything that is the responsibility of another person is being horribly delayed and it's making me fret. I am still planning to move in 2 weeks' time but these delays mean it is unlikely that I will have a tenant ready to move in straight after Easter. This isn't all bad as it will give me time to scrub, clean, paint and make pretty but it does mean that I'll be paying the mortgage and not clearing debts.

I'm quite excited about this move actually. I have been for a while now but it's actually happening - it's no longer just talk or daydreams. It still surprises me that moving house, which is usually enormously exciting and full of promises of what is yet to come, actually means carrying out a series of mundane, tedious or even unpleasant tasks. Packing for example is not a great way to spend any amount of time, least of all an hour every evening for 2 weeks. I've also spent the past 2 Sundays scrubbing my window frames to clear the mould and spiders' webs (I realise I would need to do this anyway but I feel my hand is slightly forced by the circumstances). And now I need to paint most of my house. The inside, I mean. I'm not scaling the outside and re-rendering or anything.

A work colleague and his wife recently bought their first house, having rented for several years. They don't yet have children but they bought a 4 bedroom family home with the intention of staying there until they retire, when they might perhaps downsize. This to me seems quite alien as I never have been particularly good at planning for my future, but on a more practical note if I hadn't moved as much as I have I wouldn't have sorted through my belongings on a fairly regular basis. And by golly do I hoard a lot of crap. Imagine having to clear through 40 years' worth in one go?! *shudders*

And just think, I get to do all this again in a years' time when I move back out of Mummy's.

Hoovering

It's never been my favourite of all the housekeeping duties but I discovered today that the powers of the vacuum cleaner are vastly under-rated. The headboard for my bed appears to have developed some kind of excema and the paint has flaked off - now all sucked up. A family of spiders had been festooning my ceiling with silky webby garlands - and unfortunately for the spiders, after 10 minutes of climbing over my bed like some kind of domestic Ghostbuster I now have clean lines in the corners all ready for painting. I even used it to dust my shelves and drawer units. Why did not I think of doing any of this beforehand?

The saddest part of today was having to vacuum up the remains of my beloved Dior mannequin which met an untimely end during a furniture rearrangement exercise. May she rest in peace.

I have my car back!

Finally.