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Car workshop on the walk to work. So closing down after 32 years had nothing to do with not updating your phone number for the new London codes, then?
Tube strike day two. If nothing else, it’s getting me very […]

I’ve never been a fan of unions. They have their place, but only if used (and run) responsibly. Today, though, with the tubes on strike I can’t say I have much sympathy for the drivers’ cause. Particularly not as their gripe is that they are ‘only’ being offered a 3.5% pay increase PLUS a decrease […]

Well, dye me ginger and call me Cilla Black, but it seems nik.co.uk has turned into something of a dating site. The Euro2004 entries are a few days old now, but they’re still picking up the odd comment here and there. Today’s is the oddest of the lot… so far:
Hi, Christiano Ronaldo, are you in […]

I’m very impressed with Lisbon. I could happily have slept all morning yesterday, but the chance of some free time in a city I’d never seen before was too good an offer to pass up, so I left the alarm set to the time it was for Thursday morning, and crawled out of bed into […]

So how come I didn’t know about this football thing before? It’s great. Or at least it is when you’re there. I still can’t imagine myself watching it on telly, but I’ve never felt so tense, excited, disappointed, elated and keyed up all at the same time as I did last night.
The stadium was packed. […]

So, Lisbon with Canon for the quarter finals of Euro 2004. England v Portugal.
I had been expecting the city to be packed, but after a brief wander down the main street with Mark, it seems the whole place is deserted, so we returned to the hotel bar with everyone else and sat drinking gin and […]

Hmmm… so England beat the Czech Republic 4:2 tonight, which means I’ll be watching England v Portugal on Thursday. Apparently this is a “Good Thing”, and Chris of the Brennan has been encouraging me to learn a chant that goes (roughly) along the lines of ‘Engerlund Engerlund Engerlund’.
Repeat as necessary, varying pitch and tone, preferably […]

My washing machine is making some very strange and slightly concerning noises.
It’s Andrew’s birthday on Thursday, when I’ll be otherwise occupied in a stadium in Lisbon (he says, rubbing it in), so today was the traditional summer barbeque.
In the rain.
Fortunately the barbeque is a permanent fixture, which means it has a room-sized roof over the […]

A busy few. It’s as well the pub was open late last night, as I didn’t get home until gone 10, which still left several hours for chatting with Trevor and Jon about their impending holiday. They went to Sitges this morning, which must mean it’s a year since I was there. For once, that’s […]

Now I’m not usually much of a one for reading The Sun, but you have to admit today’s front page was a work of genius, picking out six English yobs who got themselves in trouble for rioting in Portugal and printing their pictures with a descriptive word written beside each one: Halfwit, Peabrain, Plankton, Thicko, […]