I very rarely get nervous watching 22 people play football on the telly. But yesterday’s 1-0 against Barcelona ended with 20 minutes of real terror for me.

Am I the only one who thinks that it’s real disappointing for Man U to play a European final with English opposition? It’s a sound endorsement of the quality of English football (money, not the game iself as the EURO results showed) but there’s something decidedly un-European about this final.

On yesterday’s game itself, each team had one outstanding player, both South Americans. Masterful Messi and Tireless Tevez were both a joy to watch.

After a Saturday indoors helping Ioan Man plaster wallpaper over his DIY crimes, we headed out to get plastered in town.

The new Trof on Grosvenor Street is rather nice, and Saturday was a very pleasant day so we sat ouside watching the peoples.

Sandbar was nice, but I was rather worse for wear when I hit it. As usual spent a lot of time chatting to random strangers.

Obligatory kebab on the way home, with a couple of extra burgers just to be safe.

Happy St George’s Day all, the day that celebrates a Saint killing a dragon (there’s some deep symbology there that has evaded me I suspect). I suggest we all find ourselves a dragon to barbeque. Apparently it’s also the date Shakespeare died and possibly the date he was born as well.

I’ve been following a discussion on The Telegraph’s online pages about how the English should celebrate this hallowed(?) day. Unfortunately this discussion is open to the public, so there’s a good dose of nutters and offensive people with bad spelling reflecting their intelligence and/or breeding.

The main groups of comment can be illustrated as follows:-

1. “Immigrants! Bah!”
2. “Let’s just all hold hands and kiss some flowers together”
3. “I’m not a racist, I listen to Miles Davis, but…”
4. “How many St. George’s does it take to change a lightbulb?”
5. “Shoot Gordon Brown”

And as usual, my favourites the pedantic who lumber on with care for nothing but accuracy, ACCURACY!

6. “I think you’ll find that in 1345 the Duchy of Normandy was technically an outpost of the Princedom of Monrovia, due to the provisions of the Genoa Treaty signed just a decade earlier by the disposed Earl (under circumstances that some even at the time called suspect due to the involvement of Lawrence of Arabia and Harry Potter) who still maintained fiefdom by virtue of his marriage to the heiress…”

What a wonderfully divisive thing debate can be!

Footie’s on for Monday night!! 9 on 9, proper turnout, it’ll be a riot! Come on Whites!

I allowed myself some pre-match amusement at http://www.engrish.com. Obviously the bad english is funny, but to my mind the piece de resistance is the poster’s dry comments.

See here the fun for to begin on the clicks

Wow!

As usual, I turned up at the wrong bar in Northern Quarter because no matter how many times I’ve been there I always confuse M&Ps with another club on the way. Anyway, got there eventually and found Ioanni and Giles from work already at the table with Amstels, waiting for the show.

Kyla Brox is a blues vocalist and this night she had with her on stage Danny Blomeley on acoustic guitar and Anthony Curtis Marshalls on saxes. Both gave brilliant solo performances throughout the length of the gig. The guitar was taking on the bass role in most songs, whereas the sax was left to create a rhythmic background to a most beautiful and powerful vocal performance.

Which was breathtaking!!

One analogy to Kyla’s voice that popped into my mind was the way the notes of a mighty Ducati Monster Testastretta Desmodromic 998 cc engine can be sweet harmony at low revs but then, with a quick twist of the thottle, can rip your head off and stuff it down your gullet.

She has a new album out called ‘Gone’ which is great, but we bought the ‘Live in Matt and Phreds 2006’ for the memories. Folks, go forth and buy!!

Ask the man a straight question and you’ll get a straight reply..

Question: “Is the tide turning in Iraq?”

Bush: “I think –tide turning –see, as I remember –I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of –it’s easy to see a tide turn –did I say those words?”

George W. Bush
Washington, DC
06/14/2006

Ioannis brought to my attention the fact that there is a Human Resources website offering consultancy on Corporate Manslaughter.

Yes, you heard right.

Apparently,

“On the 6th April 2008 the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 comes into force. This means that companies’ internal control of health and safety is a business risk that senior managers can no longer regard as a minor matter. Directors must act immediately, to raise the status of health and safety so that it assumes the same level of boardroom importance as other business risks.”

Aha! I spotted a loophole in the last sentence. As long as we raise the status of health and safety to the same level of boardroom importance as other business risks…

I just remembered a good old line: “I put the ‘laughter’ in ‘manslaughter'”!!

Last time we went go-karting from work I joked about competitiveness using this beautiful example from despair.com Goals

Now I know this company better, this time I think there are a few more Demotivators tm I can add.

Trouble: this will be my catchphrase for the event

Consistency: seems to be the secret weapon all teams are relying on this time

Success: regarding a Director who ran over an employee last time

Mistakes: regarding the employee who got ran over