New Year.

An unusual night for me tonight. My wife has to work! We would not be out anyway, but it's still a bit of a change to say the least.

Myself and my lads will see in the New Year together, and wish our missing wife and mother the best via text.

Not that much bothered to be honest,  but  Happy New Year !

Some predictions for 2011.

Cricket:
England complete a 3-1 ashes triumph with Swann taking eight wickets in the match .
England to beat India in the summer, despite the rain.
Durham to recover their poise and finish third in the CC.

Football:
Sunderland finish an excellent ninth in the PL, despite a slump around the turn of the year.
West Ham, West Brom and Wigan all relegated.
Man Utd win the PL
Spurs win the cup, (the year ends in a one after all!)
QPR, Leeds and Notts Forest are promoted to the PL


Politics:

The euro comes under almighty pressure and effectively is dis-established, with an inner and outer core emerging.
The Tories come under immense pressure as the press and BBC chase blood after watching Libs panic and start to desert the coalition. They all deserver their various degrees of discomfort for having foisted so many back room deals on the British public.
Recession gets worse, (no doubt for me as well!)

Somebody , somewhere, starts to ask public questions about who is owed all the trillions that various governments and banks owe.

We'll see, think I might get about 60% !

Christmas.

I have just returned from a vigil Christmas mass. It was standing room only , and not much of that,( well none actually, sardines have more room, but don't tell the man with the clipboard that).  The other masses tomorrow will be the same, they always are. Whatever the press might print on this matter, masses are usually well attended, sometimes very full, just ask the over worked priests.

 It doesn't make good headlines , but it is GOOD NEWS.   Jesus has been born. He has come to lead us out of the slough of despond with love, compassion , forgiveness and tolerance.

Hear his voice. Feel his love. Salvation is at hand.


                                                           HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Ireland. Sunk without trace.

News is belching out of the radio and elsewhere that Ireland, the land of my Grand Fathers has approached the EU for a bail out. Somewhere in the region of £50bn it seems is needed, but how long will this last? And was all the hair shirt austerity worth it when Greece has more or less carried on regardless whilst in receipt of it's own, "don't rock the boat and default " money.

And what about Portugal and Spain? What about Italy for God' sake? It is the seventh biggest economy in the world, and there is even talk if it being in trouble. If it is so are we.

But which county is not? And who are we all in trouble with?

Normal Service is Resumed.

Since the late sixties I have watched us in an almost permanent struggle to look like a top flight club, struggle which had started ten years earlier . 

This long endeavour has been mostly in vain , but has been punctuated by the occasional emergence of a team with the potential to genuinely look at home in the top division. Each of these occasions has seen the club reach some sort of crossroads, seen them have to make a decision about whether to push on or settle for the modest progress already made. We all know that they have always chose the second of these paths, and always with predictable results; a declining team headed back to it's natural level, which has been shown over this fifty odd year period to be around the top of the second tier.

This summers transfer activity has suggested that we have once again opted for the option of pulling up sharp, like a horse refusing a difficult fence when it realises what is involved in jumping it. The Jones transfer epitomises this perfectly. A player who, without being a genuine top ranker, has been very important to our remaining in the premier league for the last three years, is sold to a club of similar stature just because they are persistent and offer some money (and hardly a can't say no price either).

If Jones is replaced by a better player, these are all wasted words, and I will happily eat them. But does anyone expect that to happen? I for one do not, and expect to see the cheap option of another loan signing or an an old lag brought in to fill the gap. 

It may not be the end of August yet but the impression of financial retrenchment at the club is overwhelming. It may be that this is unavoidable, that there is little money and that the manager has been shown a blueprint for the way the club needs to be run. If so then fair enough, but any such plan was kept from supporters in the early summer, when ST decisions were being made. Any one signing up then on the strength of "just two or three quality signings" would be excused for thinking they had been given a false prospectus.

I really hope I'm wrong, but it has happened too often before to ignore the likely-hood of it happening again. Better not jump that fence, it might hurt. Normal service is resumed.

Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=514701#ixzz0wKKh9Cwo

Bull Fighting.

I was just wondering why so many seemed to sense a triumph after this odd activity was banned in Catalonia. Have they been to the toreo ?

I can't say it bothers me one way or the other , although it's interesting to note that in the French Catalonian region bull fighting has been on the increase for several years, as it had been in the rest of Spain before the recession hit hard there.

This can't possibly be because both regions want to cock a snook at their respective masters, and have deliciously come to the opposite conclusion on the same subject to make the same point, can it? And probably without a minute of consultation.

Good for them. Very, very, good for them.

OH YES!

Another win! 3-1 against Spurs who carried a few injuries today to be fair, but so did we. So Steve Bruce has I think achieved his remit of getting us safe with a bit to spare. I reckon we will get another 4 or 5 points, so well done lads.  


Mmmmmmmmmmmmm......  That season ticket! I wonder?

OUCH! Another hiding!

Well only 3-0 this time but could have been a lot more if Liverpool had their shooting boots on. Never mind, it looks like the lads have given themselves a real chance of staying up by picking up 9 points from the five games prior to today.

Mmmmmmmmmmm....  I'm wondering whether I should have another go at a season ticket with my oldest. Maybe.......We could have a bit of a reasonable chance of having a team worth watching. See how the finances go , but this week has to see the decision.

DONE IT!

Well I think so anyway. Sunderland have won 3-1 against Birmingham yesterday and all but ensured another year in the premier league. 


This has been an excellent effort by the lads, who have fought their way back to some kind of form, showed their support for the manager, and have given the club a serious chance of making real progress if Ellis Short, the owner, keeps up his careful and considered backing. All of us supporters may well live to thank him for his patience and nerve in leaving Steve Bruce alone during that hideous run when we won one and drew five from nineteen games. 


Another three points from eight games to go to make certain I think and we should get them somewhere along the line , but it would be great to see the lads safe early, and watch the team play with freedom .

AT LAST! A WIN - 4-0!

Bloody hell that took some time!  Sunderland, by far the greatest team to ever play football, have won their first game in over three months. A ridiculous amount of time, and one which would have probably seen the manager sacked at most clubs of the same size. So it looks promising for the club, (if they stay up of  course), that they held their fire; there being very little evidence of instability being any good at all for a football club.


Six or seven points will do it I think, nine at the most,  and ten games to go, five at home and five away. If we can keep enough players fit we may limp across the line. Haway Lads!

Money. Whose is it?

The UK is in a staggering amount of debt.Soon enough it will be trillions it would seem. So is the USA. So is almost all of the developed world. 


The Banks , again all over the world, are being bailed out left right and centre, they only have the money they are being (wrongly) dished out.


So to whom exactly is all this money owed? Is it owed?  Who holds it? Does it exist? Will it ever exist? Are the numbers on a screen that express this debt, merely a way to exert control? And who exactly is exerting this control? 


I am glad to be ignorant in theses matters, but I seriously doubt if there is anything like a pleasant answer to any of these questions. 

Public Sector Leeches.

I met an old "mate" today, who for a living , turns up at one of the local government offices nearby. He tells me he is on the sick with , you've guessed it .........STRESS!.


He had just emerged from a pub, and was on his way to book a holiday. I give him a full blast of my honest opinion of his scrounging and left him a bit speechless. Enough of this surely. It has to be time for these pampered feather bedded individuals to live with the same uncertainties as those living and working in the real world.


But who is to say "BOO" to these untouchables? Bloody hell , I visited East Germany in the very late eighties, and this country is increasingly resembling that shambling monolith.


I would propose, to start with:- ALL Public sector workers to have:-


A salary cap for two years for all staff on £15k or under.
A 5%  reduction for all staff on £15k  to £25K.
A 10% reduction for all staff on £25k to £35k
A  20% reduction for all staff on £35K +

Situation to be reviewed after two years.


No exceptions. Alternative employment may be sought in the real world of course by those unhappy with these terms, and for those for whom this is not possible, well they have the sureity of keeping their jobs.  These type of reductions, or greater, have been routinely imposed on the real world recently and it is time for the servants of the state to start behaving as if that is what they were, and not instead some sacred elite. 

EU Tyranny.

Daniel Hannan has given a great speech here. He is speaking to the unconvertible mostly, but always worth a listen on the hideously anti democratic monster thet the EU has become. We could do with hearing more from this man.  Notice how quickly he has to speak. In this "parliament" your time is limited.


It baffles me when so many people, bright alert people in all other ways, have no idea what is being done in their name. Being done to them. And I am not the only one to worry about the consequences of a people, especially a people like the British, waking up one day to realise that their votes at an election mean almost nothing. If this centralising tyranny is not stopped fairly shortly then the results will be progressively ugly. 


Where is the man to stand up and speak for the silent, passive majority? And what exactly are the hidden forces which seem so successfully to quieten, or have most of the media  heap abuse on , all serious dissent? Can they be defeated? How?


Or  are we doomed to live in a world run by arrogant, self regarding, preening , condescending bastards such as Milliband , Mandelson and the rest?

A grotesque spectacle played out on the radio today with the unctuous Alan Johnston rambling on in his third form best about crime and it's causes. Hilarious if it wasn't so disgusting. He would be better off using his time  attending to the increasing numbers of serious criminals who are let out of prison early and then offend before their original release date.


An idea to bring some semblance of sanity to these early releases and parole in general  occurs.


1.The prisoner, guilty of a serious crime, appears before the  parole board.
2.The board assesses the prisoner, and makes a judgement on him being granted parole.
3.The prisoner, having been granted parole, commits a further serious crime in the time before his original sentence would have been completed.
4.The prisoner, charged and found guilty of this further offence, is sentenced.


  Here is the new bit.


5. Members of the parole board are required to serve a sentence themselves as a result of their over eager granting of parole.( There  are almost ALWAYS  unheard or ignored voices counselling against the granting of  parole in these cases).


I wonder if this might temper the seemingly endless urges of parole boards in trying to out do each other in granting ever more contentious parole? I look forward to an idea such as this being taken up shortly, after which I will shoot the pig flying around the roof of our house.


+

Eurodoom.

Or delight, depending on how you look at it.  It looks to this casual observer that the Euro is now being propped up only by faith and a desperation not to face the truth.


Greece, which is the worst affected  of the smaller countries suffering under the Euro squeeze is almost now requiring monetary life support. If it defaults , and it will take what will amount to long term welfare payments from Germany to stop this, (some political price there you would have thought!) then one by one others will follow. This is a story to watch, but I won't be expecting hasty developments;  a lot of deeply entrenched, vested interests are at stake. 


A lot of news flying around suggesting that Liverpool might want to sign Kenwynne Jones. On Loan! Cheeky sods. I doubt this will happen, and hope not as well. We need him and Bent to (again) keep us up.

7-2!

Bloody hell. We have just taken an almighty battering of Chelsea. 7-2. A patched up team we may have turned out but there must have been a fair bit wrong  today. A long hard second half to the season looms. Touch and go to stay up, we need a win very quickly. 


A sign of getting old is when you enjoy the sight of the snow melting away, leaving the odd dirty mound beside drive ways. It's a relief to be at that stage right now. At least I'll be able to get to Hartlepool without leaving at stupid o'clock in the morning. Mind, if it meant staying there into the distant future I would put up with the early rises! Chance of that looks gone now though, so I'll hang on as long as I can. 


My prediction of a 2-0 win for England against SA is sunk in the water. It is said that there are some games where if you win the toss you win the match. This was has been such a game ,except that we won the toss and did exactly what THEY would have done if they had won it. A terrible wasted opportunity, although SA have bowled very well, and , crucially, much faster than our bowlers have. 

Bloody Met Office.

Nice of them to concede that they failed to see the recent cold snap. Even to the extent of them having predicted a milder than normal winter. 


So they got it wrong, so what?  Well so what for those unfortunate souls who PAY for their forecasts, or rely on them. They were even unable it seems to predict it from about a week before. 


So what again eh?  Well, fair enough what does it matter really, after all their computers cannot be expected to get it right all the time I suppose. 


Ask them what the weather will be like in thirty , fifty or ninety YEARS though, and they will bang on the money. They can be so certain of course because their computer models have told them so!

Snow .

Twelve years ago I bought a sledge. Twice it has seen a bit of action. So along with countless others in the same position, we have been delighted to see our kids hauling each other around the streets on it. Days on end they've been at it.

And a decent snowman, with an icicle for a nose! The novelty is wearing off though, as access to school is now certain. That and the temperature rising causing slush to take over. Good while it lasted.