Morning all! Sun is shining, daffs are dancing, crocuses are croaking, etc., etc! Gus`s great news has truly brightened up my week, and Min`s rallying call has raised my spirits!!(:o)

Still don`t have enough time for regular posting - but I always have a quick look every day.

Let`s get the football bit over first (in fact, let`s get the season over)! Personally I think we will scrape through - just! In view of all our injury problems and the slippery slope we seemed to so love these days, staying up is just about what we deserve. Just out of morbid curiosity, what would be the effects of our not staying up? (Discuss in a `well, of course we will stay up, but.....` sort of way.(;o)

Now, more importantly, will you please stop shattering all my illusions about the wonderful Russell Crowe! Of course he`s not a womanizer! Young girls in his room? I simply don`t believe it! Russell Crowe IS Maximus, and I WILL NOT have him knocked off his pedastal! I finally find a replacement for Charlton Heston, ie. the man I would most like to be caught in a disaster with, and the knives are out!!! So no more abuse of my hero......or else you`ll have MaxiMum to deal with! (;o)

Also, what`s with all this rubbish in the papers about Jesus? That identikit picture was way off the mark! Everybody knows that Batistuta is the absolute double of Jesus! Pah, science!! Who needs it!(;o)

BTW Gav - I`m sorting out my jar this week - getting rid of the sand first. Dog showing accounts for at least threequarters of the sand - so it has to go! Wasn`t really enjoying it anymore anyway. It will give me so much more free time now.

Still a possibility that I may see some of your smiley faces before the end of this season - but I`m saying no more, till I know for sure.

I`m having to dash off now to pick Mum up, but I shall be back this afternoon. So in the mean time........what are you all doing this weekend? (:o)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Answers

Don`t know why that came up with my mailbox addie. The BT one is my current one - can anyone who has me in their address book please change their information.........well, I might be in SOMEBODY`S address book! (;o)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Quiet night tonight possibly another viewing of Howay 5-0!

Saturday; my lovely girlfriend has lumbered me with an afternoon/evening watching the Hobbit at the local theatre! Magic! Going for a meal around the time of the match tomorrow so no web-cast for me!

Sunday, back to doing what I want to do!

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Starting a two week break at 5.00pm. Can't bliddy wait. I've even promised myself a couple of lie-ins.

Have you ever been so stale at work that you fail to notice when you are being bollocked by your manager? Her lips were moving but I was looking at SJP through the window and remembering the atmosphere when we stuffed Spurs 6-1 in the Cup last season. Don't know what I did wrong but she seemed a tad upset :-)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Well, after reading Min's inspirational rallying call, I decided I should get of my whinging @rse and get mesel doon ter Bradford tomorrow to "bail me lungs oot fer the lairds" (in true Jackie Charlton speke!). Thought I'd get a ticket nee bother, but lo & behold the Toon have none left - I suppose that's good news, actually.

So, I'm hoping someone on here has a spare, otherwise its' another afternoon of agony trying not to follow the game, but finding it irresistable.

BTW Gal, going into the Nationwide would be a financial disaster. The obvious problem is that we'd never get top players to come here - it's going to be hard enough as it is.
I watched "The Men Who Changed Football" documentary the other night, and if I recall the figures correctly, next season Clubs at the top of Div 1 will get ca. £3 million in TV revenues, those at the bottom of the PL will get either £15 million or £18 million!
In addition to the massive reduction in TV revenue, we have to pay off something like £6-7 million per year on the stadium expansion debt, and if gate receipts tumbled we could be in real difficulties.

On the positive side...........erhh, actually there isn't one! Best not to think about it, 'cos it isn't going to happen - you heard it here first.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Well, I've got something different to do this weekend. Instead of watching the snow melt (makes drying paint positively exciting) I'm off to search for the real George Best in New York - the pretend New York, not the one new Shiremoor. Sadly, it means I won't get the webcast as I will be up in the clouds. So will youse lot put in a Screach from me.

George - I'll be looking out for you.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Galaxy,
I have to take issue with you on the "crocuses are croaking". Our crocuses (croci??) have bloomed and died already. On the plus side our magnolia is just about to burst into flower (cue heavy frost!).

Anyho... this w/end....
tomorrow Mr. Sky Digital is coming to replace our analogue system. Simple? Well no. I will be removing carpets this evening to ensure the Sky bodger engineer can get a phone line into our lounge.
First golf competition of the season tomorrow, The Tank Cup, played for since 1920. My name is engraved on it once and I plan to win it again Sat am. ... I always PLAN to win these but rarley do. As you say above, the sun is shining, the course is drying out, we'll be off the medal tees and all greens in play... all praise to Hampshire chalk downland!! :-))))

Sat pm I'll be arguing with the previously mentioned Sky installer about the mess they've made. This is to distract me from tuning in to Sports Saturday/Radio 5/teletext/ceefax/etc... This time I WILL avoid all media contact until 5pm on R5.. Bradford 1, Newcastle United ......

Sunday will be scraping the winter crap of the CBR600. Daily riding to/from work is a pain during winter and this w/end is the full, fairing off, clean and lube.

I may also have a beer or two

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Out with some mates and their ladies for dinner tonight, kids tomorrow, take the kids back on sunday and start getting the porn of my old computer so I can give it to my brother....

DeB, Saw The Hobbit when it was on down here in the smoke......pretty good....not excellent but not bad....

For anyone that might read this posting I also saw the League of Gentlement in Drury Lane on monday night and it was effing excellent! still smiling thinking about it now....

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Was it a "local" theatre Gav?

Galaxy, the story we got here was at the apres Oscar party he was chatting to Courtney Love, when it was time for him to leave he and his "date" who was his ex girlfriend left together. This made CL very cross as we all know she is the most desirous babe in the universe so she chased the limo down the stret swearing etc.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Last hours of my present job (36 minutes to go). Pub Crawl in London tomorrow (the circle line). Might actually cut the grass on Sunday.

Start new job on Monday.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Happy New Job Scratchy - hope it works out well, mate.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Friday night and an excellent w/end so far.

Got home, cut grass, had BBQ. I usually manage a BBQ before the clocks go forward but the lousy weather/trips/holidays has left it 'till this late in the year ;-)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

That`s quite impressive Geordie!!!(:o)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Sat am - Josh tax - ferrying kids all over Cheshire Sat night - kids away - Thai meal with friends - Oncall so no booze - save taxi fair Sun - slobbing + kids . .

Enjoy people

Nationwide would be a disaster unless that Ipswich guy took over. Got them up with a sound business plan and no injection of his own cash. Gosh - common sense.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Which Ipswich guy is this Josh? Clearly not Bobby Robson.

Are you thinking of the Ipswich Chairman, David Sheepshank - bright lad; did you see him on that documentary "The Men Who Changed Footy"? Funny how our lot never got a mention - actually it's not all that funny!

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

The actual weekend days of Sat/Sun will be spent recovering from the last 2 days....and avoiding my car as much as possible!

Set out for Charlotte, NC at 7am yesterday morning, 9hrs through monsoonal rain amongst drivers going like bats out of hell in spite of the fact that visibility was so poor, it didn't matter if I wore my glasses. In other words, couldn't see a bleedin thing. Another 2hrs frantically spent trying to gather the seperated troops and reorganize at the arena for the U2 show. Great show, but I won't blabber on about that here. ;-) The footie-related part of this is that I wore my Toon top to the show. Surprisingly I saw 2 other people in the crowd with football shirts! One with a Wimbledon shirt, the other I couldn't make out from distance. The sponsor logo kinda looked like Doc Martens, but the colors didn't look right to be a WHam shirt. But with concert lighting and from distance, who knows.

Anyhow, after the show as I was walking out to where I was to meet up with my friends, one guy(an Englishman) caught up and asked if I was from Newcastle. Said no, he was impressed that an American would be a Toon supporter, I said I had taste. ;-) A bit of banter, turns out he's a West Brom supporter.

Drove home today. ONly 8hrs since it wasn't raining. By now I've had more than enough driving for awhile and am quite exhausted, haven't eaten properly in 2 days and beyond delirious. So I'm off to bed after setting my alarm so I'm up in time for the webcast tomorrow. See ya's all then! :-)

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Galaxy, this week-end hmmm, Football meeting last night, working Sat/Sun, one thing that I defintly will not be doing on Sunday is - Looking up Skywards early doors ready to shout, "The Plane,The Plane" will not be caught out this time !!!! Think about it , confusing nah

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001

AHA! Happy birthday buff!

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001

Doh!!!!! Only just read your posting Buff.....sorry! I seem to manage about three minutes a day at the computer just now!

It will get better I`m sure, once we settle back into some sort of routine.(:o)

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001

Further ramblings, and a couple of questions.......

Finally managed to off load my gas guzzler! In my new cute little Noddy car, driving up to Newcastle should work out cheaper than flying first class via Rome! Hurray!! (:O)

Husband`s a happy bunny too...not only has my petrol bill gone down, but the motor racing and bike racing season is under way. Big smile on his face now!

As I said, it`s bye bye dog showing for me, and toodle pip to my `doggy` web site. So if anyone wants to take a peak at the sort of rug rats I`ve been showing (before I remove the site), the address is:

http://www.geocities.com/tsunamisuk/

And the question....did the tickets for the England v Albania game go on sale when I wasn`t looking? (:o)

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

Fraid so Gal. They went on sale on March 22 - by the time I managed to get through on the phone, and then onto the Ticketmaster web-site as advised, all the tickets had gone.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001

Aw poo!!! Thanks Clarky.(:o!

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001