And about time too

Usually when there's a headline containing the phrase 'Top Ten Places ...' which includes Nottingham on their list, you can bet it's either using ages old crime statistics or written by a soft southerner who packs a sleeping bag & anti-polar bear repellent for every job north of Watford.

So it makes a pleasant, and completely warranted, change to see Nottingham listed as one of the Top Ten Places to visit in 2010.

IN THE WORLD !!!

Who by ?

Only by Eyewitness Travel Guides: the world's bestselling travel guides, that's who !!

Taekwondo

During training this week I took a nice kick to the head and I'd be fibbing if I said it didn't smart a little. Maybe it's overdue, I've broken more bones in other people than myself so maybe I'm due one.

But at least I didn't go down like a sack of spuds like this guy:

Round 1:



Round 2:

Well bugger me

Michael, the unintelligible Geordie from Alan Partridge isn't a Geordie after all. He's actually a meercat:

How good must they really be ?

You won't see this in many places, and to be honest I'm astounded it's in the Nottingham 'sorry apology for the Daily Mail' Evening Post, but this is certainly good news:

NOTTINGHAM City Council has been praised for the way its adoption service works.

Ofsted inspectors rated the service as good, with some outstanding features, after a visit last month.

More here ...

I can also say that the criteria have changed since the last appraisal and on the old scoring system they would have come out as "Excellent".

However, how good must they be for the Evening Post to report it ?!!!!

If you see Kenny Burns in Sainsbury's, turn round and get out

From the Birmingham Sunday Mercury:

EX-BLUES hard-man Kenny Burns fears that football is becoming a non-contact sport.

And the straight-talking Glaswegian has given a further damning verdict on the current state of the game by insisting – “I get more physical contact in Sainsbury’s than I would in a football match today’.

More ...

Forest 1:1 Bristol City

It had to happen sooner or later. Forest have been quietly going about their business, closely winning here, sneaking a victory there and suddenly we’re banging on the doors of the play-offs. Someone was bound to notice at some point.

And that team were Bristol City. A bloke in the toilets at half time commented that it was like being back in the first division, teams of cloggers kicking lumps out of our more gifted players (14 seconds for their first yellow card) while sticking eleven men behind the ball and trying to catch us on the break.

Couple that with Forest having their worst passing performance of the season and the game had nil nil written all over it. Everyone was at it. Paul McKenna, arguably player of the season so far miss-hit pass after pass, Joe Garner was invisible, Majic pushed out wide, Anderson out of position, even Lee Camp returned the ball several times too many. A bad day all round.

And then Wes Morgan popped up with 5 minutes to go to shovel one in from 6 yards. He then sprinted faster than I’ve certainly ever seen him run to celebrate in front of the Main Stand.

I turned to my boy at this point, playing the dutiful father, trying not to get his hopes up, that being a Forest fan means years of struggle, heartbreak and angst. I simply told him “We’re not going to win this, you know that ?”. And like a prophet of doom, I was proved right. Kelvin Wilson, who’d had a decent game to be fair, let the ball bounce in the area and City got a probably deserved equaliser.

So deserved, in fact, that during what should have been a frantic last couple of minutes of injury time, Forest fans were more than happy that they’d got even a point from such a poor performance that anything else, especially after blatantly ripping off Bristol City last season, would have been a step too far.

Still, we’re unbeaten now since mid September, almost two months ago, and that’s a good place to go into this international break. A few returning from injury, a chance to have a bit of a knees & feet up session and back to it with plummeting Middlesbrough up next.

It’s good being a Forest fan again, and maybe we can have this season off after all. Mid table in March, no hassle, no drama, just good times.

Or is that asking too much ?

Coincidence ?

Fortunately the chances of watching Forest play Celtic or Rangers in a league fixture any time soon have vanished with the Premier League turkeys, sorry, Chairmen deciding not to vote for Christmas.

But why has this come up now, unofficially for years, but only officially at today's meeting ?

Rangers have announced today a financial loss of nearly £13m last year and an overall debt of £31m.

Coincidence ?

X Factor Stung

It’s nothing new slagging off the X Factor. In fact, this will be my fifth year running (2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008). Maybe I should get a gold watch or something.

Not a week goes by without several of my Facebook friends telling the whole world that there's a couple on this years X Factor who can't hold a tune and if they don't get voted off this week then they'll never watch it again. Before repeating the whole cycle the weekend after.

NEWSFLASH: There's always several crap singers every single f***ing year, yet you don't bang on about them. They're called the finalists. Everyone else didn't even come up to the standard of being s**t.

Some viewers have even gone as far as to say the whole things fixed, keeping someone unpopular in the competition in order to increase the number of votes. I like to call this group of people 'almost intelligent'. You could appreciate the intelligence being shown if only they then still didn't participate. It's a bit like me sticking my hand in the oven when it's on, telling everyone it's hot & burnt my hand, even claiming that the oven was DELIBERATELY hot but then putting my hand in again !! Monkeys !!

However, this year former successful singer & dodgy actor Sting (not his real name) has joined the fray: (From the BBC)

Rock star Sting has called the X Factor "televised karaoke".

The singer, 58, told London's Evening Standard that the Saturday night show was "a soap opera which has nothing to do with music".

He added: "I am sorry but none of those kids are going to go anywhere, and I say that sadly."

No complaints from me, he’s spot on. But he does let himself down a touch:

….. said judges like Simon Cowell have "no recognisable talent apart from self-promotion".

No recognisable talent apart from self-promotion ?

Why now for this interview ?

Got a new album out, have you Mr Sumner ?

You've got to laugh

I don't know which of these is funnier:

Ipswich (haven't won a league game all season) beating Derby (about as likely to stay up as a baloon in a box of drawing pins).

Or .... (from the BBC)

Newcastle reveal new stadium name

Newcastle United have announced their stadium will be known as the sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park Stadium for the immediate future.

The news comes after an announcement from owner Mike Ashley that the stadium sponsorship rights were up for offer from prospective businesses.

Managing director Derek Llambias told BBC Newcastle: "We will showcase Sports Direct until the end of the season.

"I'm sure we're going to get a sponsor in for next season."

So not only does Mike Ashley p**s off even more fat geordies in tight fitting clothing, probably brought from their local SportsDirect store, for desecrating the name of their beloved football ground, but then they don't actually get any money for it because Mike Ashley owns both SportsDirect and Newcastle.

Superb, you can't write comedy like this.

Good news, just several years too late

Nothing to do with Nottingham, football or beer, but good news none the less. (from the Press & Journal, newspaper for the North East of Scotland)

Fochabers bypass papers signed

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson yesterday signed a contract for a long-awaited bypass.

The Fochabers and Mosstodloch bypass in Moray, which will relieve traffic on the heavily-congested A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road, will be completed by Morrison Construction.

More ...

I used to live in Fochabers and during my time there was ever so slightly instrumental in getting the now agreed route in place. I'll be back to see it when it's completed, if not before. I do miss the place.

Cardiff 1:0 Forest

Another Forest game viewed from the couch, and another point won in injury time, this is getting slightly worrying now.

I thought this would be the game where it all went wrong, we're due a defeat, maybe even a hammering, and Cardiff is not a happy hunting ground. But, not for the first time, I was proved wrong.

We weren't helped by the Cardiff based referee or his blind assistant, but Lewis McGugan's injury time equalizer was the least we deserved.

A week's gap until the next game, a very winnable fixture with serial pub re-decorators Bristol City and then a fortnight off to recharge the batteries, pull back players from injury and start the small climb to the summit.

Are we a top six side ? Quite possibly.

Can we nick a top two spot ? Who knows, we could do.

I just know that I'd rather be where we are now than where we were this time last season.

Or losing to Ipswich !!

Do nothing - Simon Amstell - Nottingham Playhouse 31 October 2009

I've had these tickets for months, and then got worried when I found out he'd played on the Friday night fearing I'd missed the show. D'oh.

Simon Amstell has packed up hosting 'Buzzcocks off the tele to concentrate on his stand-up, and a good choice it was too. Far too often he'd rip his TV show guests to shreds in a somewhat predictable way, but his own show was pure self examination, laying out his vulnerabilities for all to see.

The act was good, but suffered from being over-scripted and rushed into. Knowing how modern comedians hone their act into a scripted show for touring leads to a show that is clearly repetitive. Give me more audience interaction, more off-the-cuff remarks, more enjoyment from the performer.

Still, he's got the balls to stand up and do that and I simply don't have that number of balls any more.

He'll have made a fortune on ticket sales, but made back even more through not having to go see his psychiatrist any time soon.

Forest 1:0 Barnsley

Better late than never .....

We’ve been here before, a fantastic performance at the weekend followed immediately by a ‘should-win’ home game on the Tuesday night. Watford showed us what happens to complacency earlier in the season, so it was up to King Billy to stop the same thing happening against an in-form Barnsley.

Mark Robins is clearly a decent manager (despite saving Fergie’s job in THAT 1990 FA Cup tie, the current Manchester United is partly his fault) and has turned a poor Barnsley side into a, well, slightly average team. They won’t be struggling against this season, but they won’t be bothering anyone at the top either.

The game was fairly equal in the first half, Ian Hulme clipping the bar from a free-kick before some of the crowd had even found their seat as Lee Camp stood & watched, while David McGoldrick first hit the bar from a yard, then the keeper from a similar distance with support available.

Goalless at half time about right.

Barnsley came out in the second half in a re-jigged 4-5-1, which meant it would take defensive errors from a usually calm Chris Cohen to create any chances, while Forest struggled to create anything meaningful at the other end.

The referee was having a bit of a ‘mare, booking Tyson for a challenge he had to make following his shirt being removed while letting play go on for far greater crimes.

As the time went by, it became clear that this could be one of those nights, no lack of effort certainly, but a lack of that cutting creativity that defines top sides.

Until the 93rd minute. A long ball into the box, chested down by a decent looking Dele Adebola and finished coolly by man-of-the-last-two-games Guy Moussi.

His first goal for the club, a winner in injury time to keep his team in the hunt for pro ….. (no mention of the “p” word here), a reward for the hard work put in midfield. A second yellow for over celebrating. “I had to do it” said the ref apologetically.

I also apologise to the referee, as a fan, I had to call him a w***er.