If you've got a few minutes to spare

You could do worse than looking at some of the photos here.

Some cracking photos of Nottingham in the 80's, including loads from Radford / Ainsley Estate where I went to school.

On a mission from God

You've spent the best part of the last 2 hours trying to kill your only son, before finding out you've got a daughter you didn't know about. Inidiana Jones & an 8 foot teddy bear are trying to blow up your home and you've just thrown your best friend & mentor to his death resulting in your own imminent demise.

You're bound to be a bit sad.

You've got the blues.

Living in Bond Street

Anyone fancying indulging their capitalist side, or maybe for people who haven't already had a big enough argument with their family members on Christmas day, Hasbro are releasing an all encompassing UK edition of the classic board game, Monopoly.

In a move certain to upset certain cretinous Guardian journalists (there's one here, look, left), Nottingham is deemed to be the THIRD highest residential property on the whole board.

Recognition at last.

No surprises that Liverpool & Leeds make up the bottom two. Anyone who's been will understand why.

Why ?

I can understand why you would still accept premium rate phone-calls from punters trying to win competitions where the winners have already been decided (GMTV).

If you're a television executive, and you're running a competition, and the phone-lines suddenly go down, I can understand why you would fake a competition winner from someone visiting the studio (Blue Peter).

But I can't understand why you would run a poll to name a cat, look at the results and then pick a different name other than the winner.

What have they possibly got to gain from that ?

It's not as if 'wacky' students had rigged the poll and forced the BBC to name its new Blue Peter pet "MuthaFukka".

My worry is for the feline involved. How confused is the cat going to be now? Especially as they think they've redeemed the situation by bringing in another cat and giving that the name the original cat should have had in the first place.

It could be in therapy for years.

Top song - Top video

Calm down

Any football fan will know how it feels when your team scores, the immediacy of the celebrations, the joy of being surrounded by several thousand people all feeling exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.

See if you can spot which Sunderland fan gets a little bit too excited when his team scored at Middlesbrough at the weekend .....

British weather

Don't you just love the British weather ? While southern states in America have tornadoes so regularly that they don't even bother to build proper houses any more, a little bit of rain in this country and suddenly it's judgement day.

Quotes like:

"falling branches damaged an empty school bus"

"a funnel of wind lifted her daughter's trampoline 15ft (4.52m) into the air"

and

"Caravans have been upside down"

hardly hark the impending arrival of Armageddon.

Get a grip.

The Rumble Strips - Girls and Boys in Love

It's Friday, so a Friday song.

See if you can listen to it all the way through without tapping your feet. I dare you.

Back with a good 'un

Buy it from here

Listen to tracks here

Forest 2:3 Leicester

The same drive to the game, the same seats as three weeks ago and the same large numbers of away fans.

Déjà vu kicking in.

It's just a shame that the football wasn't to the similar standard of the previous Leicester game. We looked comfortable in front only to throw it away with two soft goals at the end.

Déjà vu kicking in even more.

The game started off in bizarre fashion, with Paul Smith being allowed to dribble the ball unchallenged to score within seconds. This was either down to a fantastic sporting gesture by the Leicester players, or Gary Megson's unique style of management already rubbing off.

Paul Smith was at fault (IMHO) for the Leicester equaliser, swapping his wall over for a direct free-kick only to move the wrong way when it was taken, but he did make a couple of really good saves. Again.

But even so, when Nathan Tyson made it 2:1 in the second half, it was no more than our pressure deserved, and we looked comfortable.

Cue Mr Calderwood and his dodgy substitutions. Now I feel a bit for Mr C on this one, he's been accused of negativity in the past, taking off attacking players for defenders in the Yeovil debacle, so to swap Lennon for Perch and Tyson for Holt does smack of having learnt that lesson, but it was as a direct result of these substitutions that the remaining players decided to engage clueless chicken mode and back off anything in a blue shirt.

Two late and quick goals for Leicester gave them their first win at the home of football since the invention of colour television.

Bugger.

Five guilty of fake Viagra scam

From the BBC:

Five people have been found guilty of conspiracy to supply millions of pounds worth of counterfeit Viagra

They would have gotten away with the scam for longer, but they couldn't keep it up.

Boom boom.

Moving on up

The nerves have gone, but the grading's are getting harder.

The next time my boy and I train, we'll have a nice blue tag round our green belts, which of course also means the next time I train I'll have plenty of needle holes in my non-too-delicate fingers.

TFI Friday

Oasis vs. Blur, EURO 96, Ben Sherman shirts & Alco pops, all intrinsically linked to the decade that was the nineties. For most of that time, one broadcaster seemed to have the monopoly on entertaining the nation, Chris Evans. Before simultaneously throwing his toys out of the pram and p***ing on his very expensive chips, Chris Evans could be found being sucked up to on Radio 1 every morning, and sucking up to celebrities, pop stars and future partners on his flag-ship TV program, TFI Friday.

TFI's format looks sadly dated now, but there's no denying that in the days of only four channels, TFI was MUST-SEE television. If you didn't watch TFI Friday before the regular Friday night bat round town, there was going to be big conversation you would be taking no part in, no fat-look-a-likes, no freak-or-unique and no discussion about whichever Britpop band had performed.

Which leads me to this.

I distinctly remember the notorious Black Grape performance of Pretty Vacant, but have only ever seen it the once.

Until now, god bless YouTube.

Because of Shaun Ryder's repetitive use of the 'F' word on what was then a live TV show, he is still banned from any live Channel 4 program, despite the large number of times Chris Evans says "sorry" after the songs conclusion.

Enjoy.

Got to feel sorry for Leicester fans

Sorry, tongue firmly in cheek regarding the title, obviously what I mean is I hope Gary Megson is as succesful at Leicester as he was at Forest.

Funniest thing I've heard in ages.

Not flash

Insert your own "Not ....." here.

Not Tony.

Not David.

etc etc

Landing on your feet

I'm not a big Steve McLaren fan, but credit where credit's due, the last two England performances have been superb. Not just the results, which are EVERYTHING when qualifying for a major tournament, but also the general application of tactics & ability to make an average Israel side look poor and a decent Russian side look even poorer.

And this is despite the large number of injuries we're currently carrying. Frank Lampard, Owen Hargreaves, David Beckham & Wayne Rooney would all have played last night had they been fit, while Peter Crouch would have denied Emile Heskey his international renaissance but for suspension.

Or is it because of the large number of injuries we're currently carrying ?

It is now time for Steve McLaren to earn his more than substantial wages.

The England team last night was the first un-changed England side for 30 matches, and it showed. Gone were the individuality of Beckham & Rooney, lethal at times but absent for large parts of games, replaced by a commitment to work for the team, to pass to other parts of the ground than down the right flank, to tirelessly track back to cover the now significantly lower number of mis-placed passes. I've never had a problem with Emile Heskey, you know what you're going to get and Michael Owen can read his flick-ons like a book. When Peter Crouch came on to replace the Wigan centre-forward, the difference in how well the ball was held up was immeasurable. Micah Richards is a class act which should render Gary Neville's England career to the history books, while Gareth Barry's performances should be rewarded with a slot ahead of Owen 'why' Hargreaves.

Will Steve McLaren pick the same starting eleven against Estonia ? I doubt it, although I think he should.

If he doesn't, will he regret it ? Possibly.

If he doesn't get England through to EURO 2008 from this strong position, should he be asked to do one ? Definitely.

You decide

The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance.

Is this genius ?

Or proof that sustained long term drug abuse completely addles the brain leading to the release of any old tripe ?

Album track recorded in just two takes

Or one of the best songs ever ?

Things I've learned this week

Do identical twins have the same DNA ?

Identical twins, formed when one fertilized egg splits, are the only people in the world with identical DNA. Fraternal twins, on the other hand, are formed when two different eggs are fertilized. Genetically speaking, fraternal twins are no closer than normal siblings, sharing only about 50% of their genes. Although identical twins have the same genotype, or DNA, they have different phenotypes, meaning that the same DNA is expressed in different ways.

Traits determined by phenotype, such as fingerprints and physical appearance, are the result of "the interaction of the individuals' genes and the developmental environment in the uterus." Thus, a DNA test can't determine the difference between identical twins, while a simple fingerprint can.

So now you know.

Guinness good for you - OFFICIAL

From the BBC:

The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers.

I know at least two people who will now probably embark on an even more healthier life-style on the basis of this evidence!

Remember kids, drinking is still not big or clever

Stupid b*****d

From the BBC:

A 18-year-old burglar who vandalised a children's campsite building was caught because he wrote his name on a wall at the scene, a court has heard.

More .....

Confirmation

As a father, I've long known the link between hyper-activity in my kids following on from certain foods, so avoid things on this list after a certain time in the day.














As an uncle, I've long known the link between hyper-activity in my sister's kids following on from certain foods, so insist on things on this list at a certain time in the day, usually just before they go back home.

The unluckiest workmen

It's often built into a builders terms & conditions that tea making facilities are available on the job, while even a plumber on a small job will usually be offered the chance of a hot drink.

So feel sorry for fridge repair men.

Forest 1 a:a 0 Leicester

Nearly 6,000 Leicester fans descended on the home of football for what was clearly their cup-final, to be met by nearly 10,000 Forest fans, a sizeable turnout for a game of this kind.

It would have been nice to send the Leicester fans home with their fox-tails between their legs and as the first half kicked off, it was clear who were the better team.

Forest continued on from their good form in the second half of the Dirty Leeds game, and when they took the lead mid-way into the first half it was no more than they deserved.

It took Leicester 40 minutes to get the ball over the Forest goal-line, such was the dominance.

But there are times when football pales into insignificance.

I came back fairly sharpish to my seat early in the half-time interval to see one of the Leicester coaches frantically gesturing to the paramedics sprinting up the front of the Main Stand. A couple of minutes later and the whole of the Leicester team came out on to the pitch, clearly shaken. A quick call home confirmed that there had been a medical emergency in the Leicester dressing room.

Despite the tanoy announcements that the kick-off would be delayed, I was never in any doubt that the game wasn't going to continue, and was already at the top of the stairs when Colin Calderwood announced that the game had in fact been abandoned.

Holding on to my lads hand on the way out, it becomes all the clearer as to what is actually important in life.