Sunday, July 30, 2006

The road beckons

We're off on a 4 night getaway next Sunday,which should be fun.We're heading to Ottawa via Kingston and we'll be staying 3 nights at the Rideau River Provincial Park (30 mins or so south of Ottawa),then we're treating ourselves to a night at the Holiday Inn Kingston on the way home.
We plan to see the Changing of the Guard,and hope to get on one of the free tours to the Parliament buildings if we can,and visit a few of Ottawa's amazing museums including the Children's museum at the museum of Civilisation
http/www.civilization.ca/visit/indexe.aspx.

Then it's off to Upper Canada Village to expose the kids to pioneer times -Andrew just studied that in Grade 3 and is fascinated(tho' I didn't appreciate being asked "Were the 1980's pioneer days ?" yesterday - cheeky young whippersnapper.
http://www.uppercanadavillage.com/home.htm

We also hope to take in Fort Henry in Kingston
http://www.forthenry.com/home.htm

It's all a bit educational but it's exposing them to living history,so we're looking forward to it.
Check back for a few pics once we're home.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

We''ll feed the Goat no more


Shaun Goater aka The Goat retired at the end of last season on a high with Southend winning promotion.
For City fans we'll always remember the last minute winners off his gut and his arse,as well as how he won over the fans thru his hard work and never say die spirit. Other clubs may have flash worldbeaters as their all time heroes, but we love a grafter who gives 100percent on a windy night in Burnley(and he LOVED playing Burnley)."Feed the Goat and he will score" to the tune of 'Bread of heaven" is one of the enduring football chants of my life.To score his 100th goal against trafford rangers at Maine Road's last derby was amazing.Some great memories here! Happy retirement,Shaun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2xHBGHez6g&search=shaun%20goater

Great camping weekend



Last weekend saw our 1st camping trip of the summer to the Pinery on Lake Huron -about 3 hours west of Toronto.With temperatures around 32-35c it was fabulous to be 100 yards from the lake,and the water temp was perfect. There were 10 of us - Simon came with us ina very cosy Ford Focus packed with 5 people and all the camping gear,while John Arlene and the kids were on the site next to us.Friday night delivered the compulsory downpour tho ' I did learn from last year and put up the tarps as soon as we arrived.The rest of the weekend was hot and sunny requiring the libation of many malty brews.
Here are a couple of pics.

Great Games. Posted by Andrew

Try this great new game on this great new web site !
http://www.nick.com/games/nick_games/spongebob/sb_fliporflop.jhtml

New Nike ad


Not that we are fans of Mr Rooney,but on this occasion, we back his actions 100%

World Cup review


I won't say "I told you so" but Ericksson's squad selection was bizarre to say the least.....and right from the start we wondered where the goals were going to come from with 2 unfit strikers,a plank o' wood and Foetus Walcott who actually had less outfield experience in the Prem than City's own Calamity James (played 10 mins up front at the end of the 04-05 season in Psycho's secret plan that nearly came off ).

The good

  • a great and exciting final - with lots of talking points
  • Argentina's exciting brand of football
  • Germany finally playing attacking football under Grinsy Klinnsi
  • Ghana v Czech Republic ....Ghana 2 up and going for a 3rd as if their lives depended on it,creating a schoolyard-type of "everybody up/everybody back" -nah I can't I'm knackered- open game of football that you NEVER see these days.
  • Toronto mad -fer-it better than ever - see this link to see how TO is the best place on earth to experience the WCif you can't be there http://www.worldcuptoronto.blogspot.com/

The bad

  • England England England
  • Brazil -what a disappointment.
  • losing on f#####g penalties AGAIN
  • refereeing tho you have to blame Septic Bladder and his overfed cronies for the directives
  • the general lack of wexcitement in the knockout stages.This was the only WC I can recall where the group stages were better than the knockout.

The ugly

  • The cynical diving cheating mean-spirited attitude displayed by so many(including Terry 'enry)but especially the Portugese.
  • Zidane tarnishing his legacy to millions of kids by that headbutt,tho he is coming thru it with class and good grace.
  • Wayne Rooney....well you can't dispute THAT !

Friday, July 21, 2006

The kids' birthday party



We had a party for the boys on the day of the World Cup Final.For once it was a half decent final tho' I naturally backed the wrong horse....
John ,Arlene ,Andre and Marcia and their kids were over to help us celebrate the fact that the diving cheating Portugese hadn't made it to the final(Yes I am still bitter),and a fine time was had by all.Actually our Brazilian friends had wanted the aforementioned diving cheating scum to win after Brazil were knocked out,but that's a whole other story and we're all friends again now !
My brother Simon was also over from England,and the kids party turned into a right piss up I have to say.
And on a sunday night too.
Next year we'll focus the party more on the kids rather than the football and the piss up side of things,but ..well..what can ya do ??!!

Meet the clan


Taken on the shores of the Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron just last weekend.
L-R Andrew (9),Richard(erm...26 ish ?),Colleen(likewise !) and Sean(6).

Welcome !

Well here goes ...we have joined the 21st century online blogging community.
With friends and family scattered over the big blue marble we know as planet Earth, hopefully this will be a good way to keep in touch.
Check back to see what we're up to.I can't promise we'll update it daily,but we do sometimes do stuff so we'll uplaod photos and news as often as possible.